Anti-Drug Patrols at Border Halted After U.S. Agent Is Shot by Another

A joint Border Patrol-San Diego County Sheriff’s Department operation to snare drug smugglers was suspended Monday after the shooting of one Border Patrol agent by another. The halt was called by the Border Patrol.

The wounded officer was apprehending illegal aliens in the rugged terrain just north of the border early Sunday. He was shot by an agent who, with sheriff’s deputies, was searching the area for drug smugglers.

The shooting happened in the early-morning darkness. The agent who fired the shots reportedly thought he had stumbled across a robbery in progress. Border bandits who prey on illegal aliens frequent the area.

Border Patrol officials said the drug interdiction will be suspended until an investigation of the shooting is complete.

Border Patrol spokesman Wayne Kirkpatrick said agents will continue to patrol the Otay Valley area where the shooting took place but will be looking for illegal aliens. Agents will arrest drug smugglers only if they “happen to come along,” he said.

The Sheriff’s Department has been part of anti-drug Operation Alliance since December. Alliance was developed by Vice President George Bush and Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III to bring federal, state and local law enforcement together in fighting drug smuggling along the border. Kirkpatrick called the suspension normal in light of the shooting. Lt. Dennis Cole, commander of the Sheriff’s Department’s special enforcement detail, said the two deputies assigned full-time to Operation Alliance will be reassigned to the enforcement detail. “I don’t have any problems with it (the suspension),” he said. “I’m sure we’ll be down there again.”

Meanwhile, information about the shooting remained sketchy Monday.

Border Patrol Agent Augustin Diaz, 28, was in fair condition at Mercy Hospital late Monday. One bullet shattered an ankle bone, another hit him in the thigh, and a third pierced his stomach and colon before lodging in his kidney, hospital spokeswoman Lynn Fish said. Because of his condition, investigators have yet to talk to Diaz.

The Border Patrol Monday identified the agent who shot Diaz as Lyle Johnson. Patrol officials said Johnson shot Diaz because he thought Diaz was robbing a group of illegal aliens.

The shooting occurred about 2 a.m. Sunday in Tree Canyon, a brush-coverd area about two miles north of the Otay Mesa border crossing and three-quarters of a mile northeast of Brown Field.

According to authorities, here is what happened:

Diaz, a four-year veteran of the department, was patrolling the valley floor with two other agents, looking for illegal aliens. At the time of the shooting, the two other agents were transferring 14 aliens to a Border Patrol van while Diaz was occupied with the arrest of three others.

Johnson, another Border Patrol officer and two sheriff’s deputies were patrolling the vicinity where Diaz and the other agents were operating, Cole said. Johnson came across Diaz, who was standing over the three aliens, who were lying on the ground. The other Border Patrol agent and the two sheriff’s deputies patrolling with Johnson apparently did not witness the shooting.

Both Diaz and Johnson are assigned to the Brown Field Border Patrol substation. Johnson will remain on duty during the investigation.

Kirkpatrick said Operation Alliance patrols coordinate their operations with those of immigration officers and denied that there were too many people in the area at the time of the shooting.

He cited a need for agents to travel in pairs because of the darkness and the dangers in the region. Lack of manpower, however, prevents agents from patrolling in pairs, he said.

“That’s the name of the game,” Kirkpatrick said. “I would love to see two agents per vehicle.”

The Border Patrol’s Office of Professional Responsibility is investigating the shooting. The FBI and San Diego police, which had initially been called in, have withdrawn from the probe.