Bio & Incident Details
Age: 3
Tour: 2 years
Badge # Not available
Cause: Gunfire
Location: Texas
Incident Date: 6/25/1930
Weapon: Gun; Unknown type
Suspect: two killed and two captured
· Leave a Reflection
· Add to My Heroes
· Update this memorial
Share this memorial:
Senior Border Patrol Inspector Kelsay and Patrolman Edwin M. Brown had been tipped that some contraband liquor would be put on the American side of the Rio Grande River and they went to the point to wait. Just before dawn Kelsay was making his way through the chaparral brush toward the river, and as he climbed the side of a hill, a man lifted his head only ten feet away and fired at him. According to Brown the first bullet fired from the ambushed smugglers struck Kelsay. The veteran officer, critically wounded, returned fire and a trail of blood to the Rio Grande River convinced officers that Kelsay probably wounded one or more of the men. Nearby a quantity of liquor was found together with a revolver that had been emptied and an automatic, all abandoned by the fleeing smugglers. Mexican police reported that Juan Espinosa had died from the shoot-out with Kelsay and his body located on the Mexican side of the river with a loaded pistol in his hands. Mexican customs officers arrested three of the other smugglers, two seriously wounded and one, Jesus Cantu, died later.
Kelsay was survived by his wife, Helen Temple Kelsay. He was buried in Denton, Texas. He joined the US Border Patrol on July 1, 1927.
