A Texas National Guard soldier shot and wounded a suspected cartel operative in Mexico while witnessing a violent assault on a group of migrants preparing to cross the border into the United States, according to sources within the Texas government. The Guardsman reportedly observed the man armed with a pistol and a machete beating a migrant on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande near El Paso.
Multiple sources with knowledge of the incident but not authorized to speak to media on the matter told Breitbart Texas that the National Guard soldier fired his weapon to stop a violent attack on a group of migrants on the Mexican side of the border. The soldier struck the alleged assailant in the leg, according to health officials in Juarez, Mexico.
“The Guardsman observed a group of cartel agitators approaching a group of migrants on the southern bank of the Rio Grande,” one source indicated. “One of the cartel members had a pistol at his waist and was wielding a machete.”
“The man with the machete began to strike one of the migrants with the weapon,” the source said. “The Guardsman believed the migrants were in imminent danger of being killed or severely injured by the attacker and discharged his weapon.”
“The cartel members jumped into a vehicle and sped away before Mexican law enforcement officials arrived,” a second source source indicated.
El Paso Matters reported that the Chihuahua State Attorney General’s Office confirmed that a male had been injured near the international bridge connecting Juarez and El Paso. Chihuahua Health authorities told the local news outlet that doctors at General Hospital treated the man for a through-and-through bullet wound in his right leg. The man was later discharged from the hospital.
With little information available over the weekend, a Democrat Texas State Senator, César Blanco (D-El Paso), rushed to politicize the action that may have saved the life of a migrant in Mexico.
“I am deeply troubled by this escalation in force on our border by the State of Texas. We are not at war with Mexico,” the state senator said in a statement published by El Paso Matters.
Based in El Paso, the Border Network for Human Rights (BNHR) told the local outlet that the injured man was “practicing sports near the border while a group of migrants was crossing the border.”
BNHR Executive Director Fernando Garcia added, “We are deeply appalled by the actions of the Texas National Guard,” despite the report that the actions stopped a brutal attack on innocent migrants.
Texas Military Department officials responded to an inquiry from Breitbart with a written statement:
On the night of 26 August, a National Guard Servicemember assigned to Operation Lone Star discharged a weapon in a border-related incident. The incident is under investigation. More information will be made available as the investigation progresses.
Texas Department of Public Safety Press Secretary Ericka Miller added:
On the evening of Aug. 26, Texas Department of Public Safety Troopers responded to a call of a shooting involving a National Guard Soldier along the Texas/Mexico border in West Texas. The incident is now under investigation by the Texas Rangers and no additional information is available at this time.
The FBI confirmed to the El Paso news outlet that the Texas Rangers and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations agency are
The National Guard soldier was assigned to Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star.
Texas officials could not immediately provide information on the rules of engagement relating to using deadly force to stop a threat to the safety of a Guardsman or others.
Bob Price is the Breitbart Texas-Border team’s associate editor and senior news contributor. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.