By Steve Neavling
A Border Patrol agent was killed in a solo car crash in a rural area of California near the U.S.-Mexico border Friday morning.
The agent was on duty and in an agency-issued vehicle when the crash occurred about 5:40 a.m. in rural East County, authorities told the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The agent was alone in the heavily damaged, overturned vehicle.
No more details were immediately available.
It was the first on-duty death for a Border Patrol agent this year. A CBP officer died from COVID-19 complications in January.
In the 16 years ending in 2019, 45 CBP officers and Border Patrol agents died in the line of duty. There were no on-duty deaths reported in 2005 and 2015.
