Photo via Border Patrol

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

A Border Patrol agent was shot during a routine traffic stop Friday night near the U.S.-Mexico Border in Texas.

The agent’s partner returned fire, killing the suspect at the scene, ABC News reports.

The two agents and a deputy with the Kinney County Sheriff’s Department had pulled over a car near Brackettville, Texas, when a passenger opened fire.

The agent was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

CBP did not identify the agents or the suspects by name, but said the gunman was a 25-year-old man. The driver was a 32-year-old woman. Both are U.S. citizens.

“The agents and sheriff’s deputy requested medical assistance and rendered first aid, however the passenger of the vehicle was pronounced dead at the scene,” CBP said in a statement Saturday. “The injured agent was taken to a local hospital for treatment of a non-life threatening gunshot wound, and later transported by AirFlight to a San Antonio hospital.”

Dashcam image via Las Cruces Police Department.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

Border Patrol agents, deputies and police officers will not be charged in connection with the shooting death of a suspect in the parking lot of a Las Cruces Home Depot, prosecutors told KRQE.

Investigators said the suspect, Francisco “Paco” Tarin, opened fire at a Las Cruces police officer who had responded to a June 17 call about a suspicious man threatening employees at a nearby Jack in the Box. While the officer drove himself to a hospital, a group of officers, deputies and border agents responded and found the suspect in the Home Deport parking lot.

After Tarin refused to surrender, he was shot with a non-lethe bean bag round. Tarin responded by shooting at the group of officers and agents, prompting them to return fire, killing the suspect.

The Officer-Involved Incident Task Force investigated the shooting and sent its findings to the district attorney’s office for review.

Doña Ana County District Attorney Mark D’Antonio cleared the law enforcement officers of wrongdoing.

The suspects in the kidnapping.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

The Justice Department has decided not to charge the FBI agent who fatally shot a kidnapping victim in a botched rescue attempt at a Houston home.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas “declined to proceed with federal criminal charges against FBI personnel,” a spokesman for the agency wrote in an email to the Houston Chronicle.

The decision was made in May but not publicly disclosed “after a careful and thorough review of all of the available evidence in the matter involving the shooting,” DOJ spokesman Daryl Fields wrote.

“We conducted an approximate 11-month-long, detailed and careful investigation.”

But the unnamed agent isn’t out of hot water yet. Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said a local grand jury will be convened to determine if charges should be filed against the agent.

The agent shot Ulises Valladare last year, a day after kidnappers abducted him and his 12-year-old son, both of whom were bound. The kidnappers demanded ransom from Valladare’s brother, falsely claiming they were connected to a Mexican drug cartel.

The next morning, FBI agents swarmed the home. The unnamed agent used an M-4 machine gun to break a window in the rear of the home when Valladares grabbed the gun. The agent fire two shots at Valladares, mistaking him for a kidnapper.

It still isn’t clear whether the FBI took internal action against the agent.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

A Customs and Border Protection agent Palm Beach County, Fla., has been arrested in the fatal shooting of her husband at the couple’s home.

Marcia Thompson, 39, was on her way to work when authorities allege she shot her 52-year-old husband at least six times, the Palm Beach Post reports.

According to Palm Beach County sherrif’s deputies, Thompson admitted she pulled the trigger on her duty weapon, but said her husband was threatening to kill her.

“I do not believe that Terry Thompson posed such a threat that deadly force was necessary,” Detective Jeremy Gelfand wrote in a court filing.

Thompson is being held in the Palm Beach County Jail without bond.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

About an hour before opening fire at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California on Sunday, the 19-year-old gunman posted about a white supremacist manifesto on Instagram.

Santino William Legan, who killed three people and injured 15 others, encouraged his Instagram followers to read, “Might Is Right or the Survival of the Fittest,” a fringe book that describes black and Jewish people as inferior and advocates for women as property.

The Instagram post, reported by the San Francisco Chronicle and other publications, has been removed.

“Books play a big role in the white supremacist movement,” Peter Simi, a professor of sociology at Chapman University in Southern California who studies political extremism and violence, told the Chronicle. “Posting (about a book) is a clear shout to say the reason I’m doing this violence is not just personal but to say I’m acting on behalf of a larger movement.”

The shooting follows congressional testimony by FBI Director Christopher Wray, who said most domestic terrorism cases in the past nine months have been “motivate by some version of what you might call white supremacist violence.”

“Read Might Is Right by Ragnar Redbeard. Why overcrowd towns and pave more open space to make room for hordes of mestizos and Silicon Valley white twats?” Legan wrote.

Legan was killed by police shortly after he opened fire.

The FBI and ATF are helping local police investigate.

The murderer in Gilroy is named Santino William Legan. He’s Iranian and hates “Mestizos”. https://t.co/zwZOvh1d8R pic.twitter.com/O2CUr0fNHO

— Real Jose Galvan (@Jose_Galvan) July 29, 2019

Ronnell Watson, via Instagram

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

A reputed gang member accused of ambushing an FBI agent and shooting him in the back in broad daylight in Brooklyn was found guilty by a jury Wednesday.

After three hours of deliberations, Ronell Watson was found guilty on charges of attempted murder of a federal officer, assault of a federal officer and possessing and discharging a firearm, New York Post reports.

The reputed Crips gangbanger was accused of shooting FBI Special Agent Christopher Harper, who was parked in a car in front of Watson’s house in Brooklyn. Moments after Harper was shot in the back, he was heard telling an NYPD office, “I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die.”

Harper survived the shooting and learned about the verdict a few minutes after the jury delivered it. He pumped his fists but declined to comment.

Defense attorney Michelle Gelernt claims his client panicked when he saw a strange car with tinted windows quickly approaching him.

“Ronell Watson was no assassin,” she said. “He’s just as afraid of agent Harper as agent Harper is of him.”

Watson faces up to life behind bars when sentenced.

Ronnell Watson, via Instagram

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

A U.S. attorney told a jury Tuesday to convict a reputed gangbanger accused of ambushing an FBI agent and shooting him in the back in broad daylight in Brooklyn.

“If I were to walk up behind Mr. Navarro right now and shoot him in the back, you’d think ‘he just tried to kill that guy,’” Donoghue said of his co-counsel, assistant U.S. attorney Francisco Navarro, during closing arguments in the attempted murder trial of Ronell Watson, NY Post reports.  “And you’d be right. Mr. Watson intended to kill when he aimed that loaded firearm and at Agent Harper’s back and fired.”

Watson, a reported Crips gang member, is accused of attempted murder of a federal officer, assault of a federal officer and possessing and discharging a firearm on Dec. 8, 2018. At the time, FBI Special Agent Christopher Harper was on surveillance assignment with other agents when Watson approached his vehicle.

Moments after Harper was shot, he was heard telling an NYPD office, “I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die.”

Harper survived the shooting after suffering a collapsed lung, a broken rib and fractured shoulder blade.

Defense attorney Michelle Gelernt claims his client panicked when he saw a strange car with tinted windows quickly approaching him.

“Ronell Watson was no assassin,” she said. “He’s just as afraid of agent Harper as agent Harper is of him.”

Watson faces up to life in prison.

Ernesto Godinez

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

A reputed gang member accused of shooting an ATF agent in Chicago last year has been convicted.

A federal jury found Ernesto Godinez guilty Monday in the death of the agent, who was killed when a bullet tore through his neck and exited between his eyes on May 4, 2018.

Godinez, 29, will be sentenced Sept. 19.

Police said the agent was placing a tracker on Godinez’s car when the reputed gang member ambushed the agent and opened fire. Prosecutors said Godinez, who was arrested three days later, believed he was shooting a rival gang member.

Surveillance cameras captured Godinez before and after the shooting.

Godinez’s attorney acknowledges his client was in the area the morning of the shooting, but insists Godinez was not involved in the shooting. The 12-member jury didn’t buy that.

Godinez faces up to 20 years in prison.