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| In this undated photo provided by the Ivie family, Border Patrol Agent Nicholas Ivie is seen. Ivie, a 30-year-old father of two, was shot and killed in the sparsely populated desert in southeastern Arizona early Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2012. |
PHOENIX (AP) -- Federal police have arrested two men who may be connected with the fatal shooting of a U.S. Border Patrol agent just north of the Mexico-Arizona border, a Mexican law enforcement official said Thursday.
The
official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to release the information, said it was unclear if there was
strong evidence linking the men to the shooting of Agent Nicholas Ivie.
Ivie
and two other agents were fired upon Tuesday in a rugged hilly area
about five miles (eight kilometers) north of the border near Bisbee,
Ariz., as they responded to an alarm that was triggered on one of the
sensors that the government has installed along the border.
The
wounded agent was shot in the ankle and buttocks and released from the
hospital after undergoing surgery. The third agent wasn't injured.
Brenda
Nath, an FBI spokeswoman in Arizona, and Border Patrol officials in
Arizona declined to comment on the detention of the two men in Mexico.
The Cochise County sheriff's office, which is also investigating the
shooting, didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
Lydia
Antonio, a spokeswoman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, confirmed
the two detentions, but declined to say what prompted them and what
made authorities suspect the two might be involved in the shooting.
At
a news conference Thursday in Washington, Attorney General Eric Holder
said he is getting updates on the investigation's progress and has
spoken with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano about the
probe.
Napolitano is traveling to Arizona on
Friday to express her condolences to Ivie's family and to meet with law
enforcement authorities in southern Arizona about the investigation.
Authorities
have declined to provide key details about Tuesday's shooting,
including what they believe prompted the shooting, whether the agents
were ambushed and whether any guns from the shooting were recovered.
Still, they suspect that more than one person fired on the agents.
The
head of the Border Patrol agents union has said he believes those who
carried out the shooting probably had time to escape in the early
morning darkness before authorities could seal off the area and that he
doubted that whoever shot the agents would still be hiding in the area.
In
nearby Sierra Vista, Ariz., family members described Ivie as a devoted
Mormon who developed a love for the country's people and culture while
serving on a mission in Mexico City.
Ivie's
brother, Chris Ivie, remembered that his brother came across a pregnant
woman one time while on patrol who had lost her shoes and had her feet
cut up. "He carried that woman a mile and a half to where she could
receive the proper help that she needed," Chris Ivie said.
Ivie's
death marked the first fatal shooting of an agent since a deadly 2010
firefight with Mexican bandits that killed U.S. Border Patrol Agent
Brian Terry in December 2010 and spawned congressional probes of a
botched government gun-smuggling investigation.
Terry's
shooting was later linked to that "Fast and Furious" operation, which
allowed people suspected of illegally buying guns for others to walk
away from gun shops with weapons, rather than be arrested.
Authorities
intended to track the guns into Mexico. Two rifles found at the scene
of Terry's shooting were bought by a member of the gun-smuggling ring
being investigated. Critics of the operation say any shooting along the
border now will raise the specter that those illegal weapons are still
being used.
Twenty-six Border Patrol agents have died in the line of duty since 2002.
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