Reaction To Sheriff's Deputy Pointing Firearm at Immigrants
By
KGNS News
Story Created:
Jan 26, 2013 at 12:22 AM CDT
Story Updated:
Jan 26, 2013
Video of a Webb County Sheriff's Deputy has surfaced as he points his gun at Mexican nationals. It's stirred up controversy on the international level.
The Sheriff's Department is now responding to video that surfaced of one of their deputies pointing a gun at undocumented immigrants.
The Sheriff's Department says they received information that a wanted fugitive from Mexico who escaped from a Nuevo Laredo prison was now living in the United States, but a video that surfaced today shows a Webb County deputy forcing individuals trying to cross into the U.S. back into Mexico by pointing a gun.
"I think sheriffs should only act if it endangers citizens from Laredo other wise they should ask for the support of the Border Patrol."
The Sheriff's department set up surveillance to locate the fugitive.
They say the fugitive immediately ran as officers pursued him on foot into the Rio Grande.
The officers encountered a large group of people on the river banks in the same area where the fugitive fled, mixed emotions on whether it was the deputy's duty to handle the illegals.
"If its not his jurisdiction so they say, he should have let him go or just waited for back up."
"I mean at the same time he just trying to protect people but I mean on the negative side he shouldn't have pulled out his gun not knowing fully what the guy looked like even though he's trying to help people he was endangering them at the same time."
Witnesses on the Mexican side say after the deputies threw back cloths the immigrants were carrying with them back into the river.
The fugitive the deputies were looking for was 23-year-old Victor Miguel Camargo Tristan and is reportedly a member of the zeta cartel.
In a statement by the Sheriff, he says, “It's unfortunate that this specific police operation was misinterpreted as an immigration enforcement issue.”
