By Steve Neavling
A Border Patrol agent killed while trying to help a motorist in Southern California on March 15 was laid to rest this week.
Law enforcement officials said goodbye to Alejandro Flores-Bañuelos, of the El Centro Sector, at services held Tuesday at Riverside National Cemetery Amphitheater.
Flores-Bañuelos, 35, was called to a report of a collision on state Route 86 near Salton City. When he arrived, he began helping a 75-year-old woman whose car had become disabled in the road during a dust storm. A car stuck both the agent and the woman’s car.
Flores-Bañuelos, who was assigned to the Indio Station, was pronounced dead at Pioneers Memorial Hospital in Brawley.
Flores-Bañuelos left behind a wife and three children.
Before joining Border Patrol, Flores-Bañuelos served in the U.S. Marine Corps.
“Yesterday was a difficult day for El Centro Sector as we laid our brother to rest,” the El Centro Sector posted on Facebook.
“With heavy hearts we heard our dispatch call his star number, India-203, for a safety check one more time. A call he will no longer be able to answer. We watched his horse pass by without his rider, leaving behind indelible sadness, yet grateful for the opportunity to have worked alongside him.”
