TIJUANA – Mexican federal law enforcement authorities said Saturday night that a man who was detained outside Tecate has been identified as the gunman in the shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Robert Rosas.
The suspect, Ernesto Parra Valenzuela, 36, is in federal custody, Commissioner Elias Alvarez Hernandez, head of federal police forces in Baja California, said at a news conference in Tijuana.
Tecate municipal police on Friday arrested Parra Valenzuela in the vicinity of the shooting five hours afterward. They said that he had a 9mm pistol tucked in his clothing.
The man who named Parra Valenzuela as the shooter was identified as Jose Eugenio Quintero Ruiz, one of four human-smuggling suspects who were detained in the same Tecate area by Mexican federal police, along with 21 migrants.
Alvarez said that Quintero was part of a smuggling group wanted by U.S. authorities for two recent murders and a rape.
Rosas, 30, was tracking suspected illegal immigrants in remote and rocky terrain about 9:15 p.m. Thursday when he came under fire near the U.S.-Mexican border.
Other agents found him dead outside his vehicle near the border fence moments later.