https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...91602206fb7_story.html?utm_term=.b99df9e26fbb
A Border Patrol agent whose death last November fueled President Trump’s calls for a border wall appears to have died in an accident, according to FBI findings released Wednesday.
Border Patrol Agent Rogelio Martinez, 36, was found dying at the bottom of a roadside culvert along a span of Interstate 10 in West Texas on Nov. 18. Within hours, union officials said they believed Martinez had been ambushed by smugglers in a rock attack.
The agent’s death became a political flash point less than a day later when Trump tweeted that Martinez had been “killed” and that his assailants would be brought to justice.
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But the FBI findings include previously undisclosed details about the moments immediately after the agents were injured and Garland radioed for help.
In his distress call, Garland told the dispatcher: “We ran into a culvert,” “I ran into a culvert” or “I think I ran into a culvert,” the report said.
In the course of its investigation, the FBI said, it identified several individuals in New Mexico with potential ties to the case. They have been charged with offenses involving the “smuggling of an alien,” but the agency said they are not suspects in the investigation of Martinez’s death.
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“He doesn’t have injuries on his back and front. He doesn’t have injuries on both sides of his body. They are all on the right side and in line with each other. There are also no defensive injuries on the arms or hands,” she said. “The absence of defensive injuries and a single plane of injury is more consistent with an accident than a homicide.”
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A Border Patrol agent whose death last November fueled President Trump’s calls for a border wall appears to have died in an accident, according to FBI findings released Wednesday.
Border Patrol Agent Rogelio Martinez, 36, was found dying at the bottom of a roadside culvert along a span of Interstate 10 in West Texas on Nov. 18. Within hours, union officials said they believed Martinez had been ambushed by smugglers in a rock attack.
The agent’s death became a political flash point less than a day later when Trump tweeted that Martinez had been “killed” and that his assailants would be brought to justice.
....
But the FBI findings include previously undisclosed details about the moments immediately after the agents were injured and Garland radioed for help.
In his distress call, Garland told the dispatcher: “We ran into a culvert,” “I ran into a culvert” or “I think I ran into a culvert,” the report said.
In the course of its investigation, the FBI said, it identified several individuals in New Mexico with potential ties to the case. They have been charged with offenses involving the “smuggling of an alien,” but the agency said they are not suspects in the investigation of Martinez’s death.
.....
“He doesn’t have injuries on his back and front. He doesn’t have injuries on both sides of his body. They are all on the right side and in line with each other. There are also no defensive injuries on the arms or hands,” she said. “The absence of defensive injuries and a single plane of injury is more consistent with an accident than a homicide.”
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