By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times –
HOUSTON — Two people were killed in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley after a state trooper flying in a highway patrol helicopter opened fire on a fleeing pickup authorities thought was smuggling drugs, officials said.
No drugs were found inside the truck. Troopers found three people shot inside the truck, two of them dead. The third person was hospitalized and seven others were taken into custody, including one who initially fled, according to the statement. All the passengers and the injured person are suspected to be illegal immigrants, officials said Friday. They did not release the identities of those killed.
A Texas Parks and Wildlife warden tried to pull the truck over about 3 p.m. Thursday on a farm road near La Joya, about 75 miles north of the border, according to authorities.
“The vehicle refused to stop and sped up,” Mike Cox, a spokesman for the agency, told the Los Angeles Times.
As the driver fled, the warden followed in pursuit, radioed for backup, and a Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter and ground units were called in to assist, Cox said.
Troopers suspected the driver was smuggling drugs, according to an agency statement released to the Times on Friday by spokesman Tom Vinger. The truck had “a typical ‘covered’ drug load in the bed,” the statement said.
During the pursuit, the truck driver “was traveling at reckless speeds endangering the public.”
Eventually, a trooper “discharged his firearm from the helicopter to disable the vehicle,” according to the statement.
“Once the vehicle was stopped, it was determined that no drugs were on board the pickup truck,” the statement said.
Agency officials declined to identify the nationality of the passengers. Staff at the Guatemalan consulate in Houston told the Times on Friday that they were investigating.
The Texas Rangers, a division of the Department of Public Safety, are also investigating the shooting. Investigators have interviewed the surviving occupants of the truck, according to the statement. The trooper involved in the shooting has been placed on administrative leave according to department policy, the statement said.
Vinger declined to comment beyond the statement.
The Department of Public Safety has a fleet of 16 helicopters and eight airplanes. They respond to various law enforcement support requests including pursuits, manhunts, search and rescue, disaster relief, surveillance, aerial photography, criminal transport, domestic marijuana eradication and border security operations.
The agency has increased the number of troopers patrolling the border in recent years as violence has surged in northern Mexico. They patrol by land, by armored boat on the Rio Grande and by air in helicopters where marksmen armed with powerful rifles scan the terrain for suspects.
Last summer, the agency began using two gunboats armed with .30-caliber machine guns. It has also used unmanned drones to patrol the border, but stopped using them in 2010 due to costs and logistics.
Troopers patrolling by land are often involved in high-speed chases, some ending with suspects driving into the Rio Grande in an attempt to escape, in so-called “splashdowns.”
Gov. Rick Perry and the agency’s director have defended the stepped-up border patrols, saying federal agencies have failed to secure the border even as smugglers have become more aggressive, using secondary vehicles and homemade spikes to stop troopers.
