Murdered border agent brought beanbag to a gunfight

In a story that is creating a firestorm in the United States, a policy requiring U.S. Border Patrol agents to use non-lethal bean bags as an initial weapon may have led to the murder of a decorated federal agent who was viciously gunned down by a heavily armed group of illegal immigrants in Arizona.

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The deadly gun battle took place on December 14, but the Department of Homeland Security has kept details from the public under the often-invoked premise that it's an “ongoing investigation,” according to officials at Judicial Watch, a Washington-based public interest group. This week the newspaper, the Arizona Star, obtained FBI files relating to the case and the details are sure to ignite rage among those who favor securing the increasingly violent southern border. The murdered agent, Brian Terry, and his colleague encountered five illegal border crossers at around 11:15 p.m. in an area known as Peck Canyon, northwest of Nogales, Arizona. The illegal aliens refused commands to drop their weapons and the two federal agents proceeded to fire beanbags, as per Border Patrol policy to use non-lethal force against illegal aliens entering the U.S. The illegal immigrants, who were heavily armed with sophisticated assault weapons such as AK-47s, responded to the beanbags with gunfire and agent Terry was mortally wounded -- shot in the back. The agents eventually returned fire but it was too late for Agent Terry. Terry was a member of a highly trained tactical unit (Bortac) that was targeting a violent gang that robbed and assaulted other criminals such as drug runners, human traffickers and illegal aliens. "This is indicative of the current administration: they are more concerned with the safety and well-being of lawbreakers than they are about protecting American law enforcement officers," claims former police detective Peter Perotta. "This is what happens when you have a community organizer in the White House, instead of a Commander in Chief, who surrounds himself with like-minded department heads to lead law enforcement agencies," said the decorated cop. Judicial Watch also noted that a separate news report -- this time in the L.A. Times --indicates that the gun used to murder Terry was actually part of a federal experiment that allowed firearms from the U.S. to be smuggled into Mexico so they could eventually be traced to drug cartels. Instead, federal law enforcement officers have lost track of hundreds of guns which have been used in numerous crimes. Among them were at least three guns found at the Peck Canyon scene of Terry’s murder. The weapons were traced through their serial numbers to a gun shop in Glendale, Arizona, which led to a Phoenix man (Jaime Avila) that the feds repeatedly allowed to smuggle firearms into Mexico. Known as Operation Fast and Furious, the disastrous project was run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), according to Judicial Watch officials. Special thanks to Jill Farrell, Director of Public Affairs for Judicial Watch, for her assistance with this article.