18 year old Eagle Passan shot and killed by U.S. Border Patrol

18 year old, Juan Mendez,  of Eagle Pass, Texas, passed away at approximately 10:40 a.m. on Tuesday, October 5, 2010, due to two gunshot wounds sustained in the back after being involved in a car chase and shooting with U.S. Border Patrol agents. Mendez died minutes after arriving in the Emergency Room of the Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center in Eagle Pass, Texas. Justice of the Peace June Edwards pronounced Mendez dead and ordered an autopsy.

At approximately 8:15 a.m., United States Border Patrol agents began a pursuit on a suspicious vehicle that would not pull over. At approximately 8:20 A.M., Mendez was in a 1988 Ford white utility truck which entered Wichita Circle at the Village of Hopedale Subdivision, which is a dead-end street.

The white Ford utility truck Mendez was driving came to a stop at the end of Wichita Circle.

The pursuit ended with two shots being fired at Mendez by a U.S. Border Patrol Agent after a struggle between Mendez and the agent in the Village of Hopedale Subdivision near the banks of the Rio Grande River, approximately three miles north of the Eagle Pass city limits.

Another individual, a 15 year old male juvenile, in the white Ford truck got away on foot into the wooded area by jumping a wooden boundary fence. A U.S. Department of Homeland Security helicopter was dispatched to search for the other individual together with various law enforcement agencies. The 15 year old male juvenile was later found and detained by law enforcement.

The 1988 Ford truck driven by Mendez was found with approximately 320 pounds of marijuana.

The incident is under investigation by the Texas Rangers and Maverick County Sheriff’s Department.