BORDER AGENTS FATALLY SHOOT DRIVER IN CAMPO FOLLOWING PURSUIT

Three Border Patrol agents opened fire on a driver following a vehicle pursuit late Friday in Campo, sheriff’s officials said.

The shooting happened just before 10:30 p.m. in a gas station parking lot at the intersection of state Route 94 and Buckman Springs Road, sheriff ’s homicide Lt. Thomas Seiver said.

The incident began about 15 minutes earlier, when an agent tried to stop a vehicle suspected of being involved in migrant smuggling, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the umbrella agency over Border Patrol. The vehicle did not stop for the agent, and after a brief pursuit the vehicle stopped at the gas station, according to CBP.

Three men were inside the vehicle.

“A confrontation ensued, resulting in three agents discharging their firearms,” Seiver said in a news release. “The driver of the vehicle was struck by gunfire.”

Medics took the driver to a hospital by ambulance, where doctors pronounced him dead shortly after arrival, Seiver said. He had not yet been identified as of Saturday afternoon, according to CBP.

Two other men inside the vehicle, both Mexican nationals, were uninjured, as were the Border Patrol agents. The immigration status of the driver who was killed was not immediately known.

The two passengers were detained by Border Patrol.

Few details of the incident were released, including what happened before the agents fired shots.

The Sheriff’s Department was called out to investigate. It is standard procedure for the department’s homicide unit to investigate deadly and non-deadly shootings involving law enforcement in unincorporated parts of San Diego County. The FBI, Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General and CBP’S Office of Professional Responsibility also responded to the scene and will review the investigation.

The names of the agents involved were not released. The agent who initiated the pursuit is assigned to the agency’s El Cajon station, according to CBP.

The last reported shooting involving a Border Patrol agent in San Diego County occurred in October, when Agent Ryan Gonsalves fatally shot 30-yearold Tijuana resident David Angel Villalobos-baldovinos near the San Ysidro Port of Entry.