After hours of deliberation, jurors found two illegal aliens guilty on all counts in connection with the death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. The guilty verdict confirms that Ivan Soto Barraza and Jesus Leonel Sanchez Mesa, two men who had entered the country illegally as part of a crew of gunmen bent on robbing drug cartel smugglers, killed Terry during a shootout.
Defense attorneys tried to claim that the men were not there to commit a robbery and that the shooting was done in self-defense.
Terry was a member of the elite BORTAC team that had been working in the area known as Mesquite Seep. The agents had moved to arrest the gunmen and yelled out “policia,” however, the gunmen pointed their weapons at them prompting the agents to fire.
Trial testimony revealed that the agents fired their less-lethal ammunition or bean bags as per agency policy but the rip crew fired with bullets, one of which ricocheted and killed Terry.
As reported by Breitbart Texas, the weapons used in that trial proved controversial since two them came from the failed ATF operation Fast and Furious.
The failed and controversial operation run by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives called for cartel members to purchase weapons at U.S. stores, which the agents could trace to their cartel bosses. At the end of the operation, close to 1,500 weapons ended up getting lost and likely smuggled into Mexico.
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