A modern martyrdom: a federal agent 1] spends his own money
to 2] defend his country with a 3] air rifle - i.e. taking
reasonable safety precautions - and 4] loses his job.
Implicit in the story, but apparently not worth
reporting: 5] illegal immigrants are rafting across the
All-American Canal regularly, because they know the U.S.
won't stop them.
Border Patrol Agent Who
Sank Raft Carrying People to Resign
Los Angeles Times
December 14, 1999
From Associated Press
SAN
DIEGO
--
A Border Patrol agent who used a pellet gun to sink a
raft carrying three illegal immigrants across the
All-American Canal has agreed to quit the agency to
avoid criminal prosecution, according to an agreement
announced Monday.
Gary S. Whitfield, 32,
admitted that he fired a pellet pistol at the raft in
May and tried to cover it up by throwing the gun into
the New River, his attorney and federal officials said.
A witness told authorities
that two immigrants swam to safety, but the third did
not make it across. However, no body was ever found in
the canal, which runs along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Whitfield acknowledges
violating Border Patrol policy against shooting at
illegals trying to cross the border, but a criminal
conviction was unlikely because there was no evidence
that anyone was injured, said his attorney, Everett
Bobbitt.
"Their chance of
conviction, in my opinion, was about zero and they
recognize that or they would have prosecuted it,"
Bobbitt said.
However, federal officials
said they had evidence that Whitfield had bought the gun
the day before the shooting and bragged to other agents
that he intended to "get a raft" in the canal.
"We had a situation
where a Border Patrol agent fired a pellet gun at a
raft, but we couldn't find any victims," said
Amalia Meza, an assistant U.S. attorney.
As part of the agreement,
Whitfield, who has been on administrative duty at the
Calexico station since the May 14 shooting, must quit
the Border Patrol.
