The U.S. Border Patrol held a memorial service in Ajo Thursday to honor an agent who died Nov. 3.
About 300 agents, friends and family gathered at 1 p.m. at the LDS Church in Ajo, about 120 miles west of Tucson, to pay their respects to Border Patrol agent David Webb, 35, said agency spokesman Rob Daniels.
Webb died from head injuries sustained on duty after a tire on his Chevrolet Tahoe blew out and the vehicle rolled while he was driving eastbound on Arizona 86 west of Sells.
It was a traditional military-style ceremony with a 21-gun salute, an aircraft fly-over and the playing of bagpipes, Daniels said. Military personnel — Webb served in the U.S. Army — presented American flags to Webb's mother and father. Border Patrol Tucson Sector Chief Michael Nicley gave Webb's widow, Celia, a U.S. flag on behalf of the Border Patrol, Daniels said.
People are also reading…
Speakers included Nicley, Webb's brother-in-law, a classmate, a supervisor and the agent in charge at the Ajo station, Daniels said. Border Patrol deputy chief Kevin Stevens also attended , he said.
At the conclusion of the two-hour ceremony, officials made a last call, a law enforcement tribute in which the fallen agent's name is called three times on the radio and the network cleared before making a final tribute.
"It's one of the most powerful things that's done at the memorial in honor of the agent," Daniels said. "I get goose bumps every time."
Webb, born in Coos Bay, Ore., had been with the Border Patrol in Ajo since Feb. 23, 2004.
He is survived by his wife and two sons, Tysaac, 7, and Sethric, 3, the Border Patrol said.
Webb is the second agent from the Border Patrol's Ajo Station to die this year.
"It's tragic whenever an agent loses his or her life in the line of duty," Daniels said. "But to have two of them in less than eight months, it's unthinkable."
