United States Department of Homeland Security - Customs and Border Protection - United States Border Patrol, U.S. Government
End of Watch: Saturday, January 19, 2008
Age: 31
Tour of Duty: 6 years
Badge Number: Y246
Cause of Death: Vehicular assault
Date of Incident: January 19, 2008
Weapon Used: Automobile
Suspect Info: Convicted of murder
Senior Border Patrol Agent Luis Aguilar was killed when he was intentionally struck by the driver of a vehicle he was attempting to stop.
Border patrol agents observed a brown Hummer and a red Ford F-250 pickup crossing from Mexico into the United States about 20 miles west of Yuma, Arizona. Agents on normal patrol watched as the vehicles traveled west on I-8. The drivers of the Hummer and the pickup saw that the agents were following them and turned around, heading back the way they had come, with the Border Patrol following them. As Agent Aguilar deployed spike strips, near the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, he was intentionally struck by the the driver of the Hummer.
Both vehicles fled into Mexico, where the suspect who struck Agent Aguilar was later apprehended. A second suspect turned himself in to authorities in the United States. The suspect who was apprehended in Mexico was later released by Mexican authorities who claimed there was no international arrest warrant for his arrest. He was re-arrested in Mexico in February 2009 and extradited to the United States in January 2010 to face murder charges.
In April 2011 the subject was convicted of second degree murder and related charges.
Agent Aguilar had served with the Border Patrol for six years and was assigned to the Yuma Sector. He is survived by his wife, two children, brother, and sister.