The Border Patrol has come under scrutiny for its agents' use of deadly force over the years and the lack of transparency surrounding these incidents.
There is no complete picture of how many people have died in Border Patrol-related shootings or incidents in the last decades. The Guardian tallied 97 instances of deadly force used by Customs and Border Protection officers — this includes Border Patrol agents and customs officers — in the last 15 years, 23 of them in Arizona. The Arizona Republic has counted 57 people killed by on-duty Border Patrol agents and custom officers since 2005; 20 of those were in the agency's Tucson and Yuma sectors.
There are dozens of others where the person or agent was wounded but survived.
A search through the Arizona Daily Star archives since the 1990s and government watchdog group reports paint a picture of agents firing their firearms in response to rock throwers, others accidentally discharging their weapons or shooting at fleeing vehicles. But also shows instances when agents shot in response to bandits robbing migrants or suspected drug smugglers shooting at them or trying to go for their service weapons.
People are also reading…
Two agents have been shot and killed by drug smugglers or bandits in the last two decades: Alexander Kirpnick in 1998 and Brian A. Terry in 2010. In 2012, agent Nicholas Ivie was killed by friendly fire.
Here are some of the fatal shootings in Arizona based on Star reports:
Chip Hale among Arizona baseball coaching legends to fall on hard times | Greg Hansen
