US Border Patrol Agent Was Fatally Shot In Vermont Near Canada

Authorities on Tuesday are investigating a fatal shooting of a U.S. Border Patrol agent that also left a suspect dead and another injured on a Vermont highway near Canada, authorities said.

The agent’s death Monday afternoon was confirmed by the FBI and Benjamine Huffman, acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in Washington. The injured suspect was taken into custody after the violence on Interstate 91 in Coventry, about 20 miles (32 km) from the Canadian border, the FBI said in a statement.

Coventry is close to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Newport Station, part of the Swanton Sector that encompasses Vermont and parts of New York and New Hampshire. The area includes 295 miles (475 kilometers) of international boundary with Canada.

A portion of the interstate was closed after the shooting and fully reopened less than a day later.

Huffman said the agent died “in the line of duty.” The identity of the agent, who was assigned to the U.S. Border Patrol’s Swanton Sector, was not immediately released.

The agent was shot at 3:15 p.m. on the interstate in Orleans County, a small community of 27,000 residents in the rural and remote Northeast Kingdom section of Vermont that straddles the Canadian border.

The death of the agent is “a tragedy for the Northeast Kingdom,” said state Sen. Russ Ingalls, a Republican who represents the area.

The Derby Line–Rock Island Border Crossing is located about 12 miles (19.3 kilometers) by highway north of Coventry. It’s a major link to the Canadian province of Quebec, giving northern Vermont more French speakers than most of New England.

Vincent Illuzzi, the state’s attorney in neighboring Essex County, drove past what appeared to be a U.S. Border Patrol agent traffic stop on I-91 past the Newport exit Monday afternoon, he said, shortly before authorities reported the shots were fired.

“I’m heading down the road, not much traffic, and I saw them on the right,” he told The Associated Press over the phone Tuesday.

The agent was driving an unmarked white pickup trick with a cab on it and red and blue flashing lights, he said. The stopped vehicle appeared be a small, blue car, he said. The agent was speaking with someone standing in front of his truck, behind the car, he said.

“Nothing unusual at that point,” Illuzzi said, but when he got back on the highway later that night, it looked like the same two vehicles were still parked and other law enforcement vehicles had arrived.

Illuzzi said the U.S. Border Patrol works closely with state and local police in his county. “We have limited law enforcement and they’re often primary responders in emergency cases.”

The agent’s death was the first killing of a Border Patrol agent in the line of duty since Javier Vega Jr. was shot and killed near Santa Monica, Texas, in 2014, according to records provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Vega was initially considered to be off duty at the time of his death, but in 2016 it was re-determined to have been in the line of duty, the agency said.

In 2010, Brian Terry ‘s killing exposed the botched federal gun operation known as “Fast and Furious.” Border Patrol Agent Nicholas J. Ivie, of the Brian A. Terry Border Patrol Station, was mortally wounded in the line of duty in a remote area near Bisbee, Arizona, in 2012. Border Patrol Agent Isaac Morales was fatally stabbed while off duty in 2017 in Texas.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Vermont State Police and Orleans County state’s attorney’s office declined to comment Tuesday. U.S. Customs and Border Protection planned to release information as it became available, an agency spokesperson said in a statement.

Vermont’s Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Peter Welch and Rep. Becca Balint sent condolences to the agent’s family in a joint statement and said Border Patrol agents “deserve our full support in terms of staffing, pay and working conditions.”