Associated Press Writer
July 08, 2008 04:00 am
—
2 suspects shot,
third escapes after
assault in Vermont
By WILSON RING
MONTPELIER, Vt. -- A U.S. Border Patrol agent shot at three suspects early Monday after being assaulted on a residential street near the Vermont-Quebec border, the agency said.
An officer on routine patrol spotted the two males and a female walking in the Baxter Street area of Derby Line at about 2:15 a.m., said spokesman Mark Henry.
Henry said the agent spoke with the suspects briefly before they began assaulting him. Henry wouldn't release the name of the agent, who was not seriously hurt.
"They knocked him down, there was a struggle," Henry said. "One subject started punching and hitting him; at that point he became concerned for his life."
The agent fired two shots. A male and female suspect were taken into custody. The second male fled back into Canada.
Neither person in custody was wounded. Agents don't know about the other suspect.
Henry said it would be up to Vermont's U.S. Attorney's office to release the names of those taken into custody on Monday and their nationalities. A call to the U.S. Attorney's office was not immediately returned.
It was the third shooting incident involving Border Patrol agents in the agency's Swanton Sector in the last 11 months. The sector runs 295 miles from Ogdensburg, N.Y., east through Vermont and on to the New Hampshire-Maine border.
In May, a Border Patrol agent in Malone shot and wounded a New York man accused of smuggling marijuana into the United States on an all terrain vehicle. Last August, an agent shot at a vehicle in Alburgh that twice tried to run him over.
Henry said there is more violence on the border, but he thinks it shows the Border Patrol is doing its job.
"I think part of that is as we get more effective, as we get more agents, more equipment, we get closer to our goal of operational control on the border," Henry said.
Since the 2001 attacks on the United States the Border Patrol has added thousands of agents who are spreading out across the U.S. Mexican and U.S. Canadian borders.
State and local law enforcement in Vermont and provincial and national law enforcement in Canada are assisting in the investigation.
Derby Line is a series of residential streets and buildings that straddle the border.
Illegal border crossing moves north and south. In October, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested more than 40 people trying to enter Canada illegally through Derby Line.
The Border Patrol and Royal Canadian Mounted Police have both discussed with residents of Derby Line and Stanstead, Quebec, the possibility of blocking those streets at the border, but residents have resisted because they're accustomed to cross from one country to another with ease.
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