Cnn.com
A U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent was killed Saturday when he was struck by a car driven by a suspected narcotics smuggler, officials said.
Luis Aguilar, 32, who was assigned to the Yuma, Arizona, border patrol station, died Saturday, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner W. Ralph Basham said in a statement.
"Agent Aguilar's death serves as another stark reminder of the risks our front-line agents and officers face each day," Basham said.
Aguilar was trying to place spike strips in the path of two vehicles believed to have illegally entered the country from Mexico when one of the vehicles hit him, agent Michael Bernacke, a spokesman for the agency's Yuma sector, told The Associated Press.
Both vehicles drove back across the border into Mexico, the AP said.
The fatal incident occurred in the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area near Andrade, California, Basham said. Andrade is just over the California state line from Arizona.
Posted by tyne at January 21, 2008