RIO GRANDE VALLEY, Texas (ValleyCentral) — A Weslaco man is being held without bond after he allegedly shot at a Border Patrol agent while transporting migrants, documents revealed.
Rafael Arriazola was arrested on charges of assault on a federal officer and transporting aliens within the U.S., federal records show.
According to a criminal complaint, on May 17, a migrant from Mexico crossed the Rio Grande and entered the U.S. along with eight to 10 other migrants. After being in the brush for two days, he said that he knocked on the door of a trailer and an unidentified woman answered.
The migrant man told her he was thirsty and needed help, and she said she would call her son to help him. The complaint states that 10 minutes later, a black Ford truck arrived and Arriazola got out. The man told him that he was from Mexico and had been lost in the brush and needed help getting to a cousin’s house in Donna.
While at the trailer, the man saw Arriazola drop a black pistol before putting the gun in his waistband. He told Arriazola that two other migrants remained hidden in the brush, and Arriazola told him to bring him to them. While on their way, they encountered Border Patrol agents, and Arriazola pulled out the pistol and ran with it in his hand, the complaint stated.
Authorities spoke with one of the Border Patrol agents, who said they saw the migrant and Arriazola and gave them the command to stop. While apprehending the migrant, the Border Patrol agent saw Arriazola 35-40 yards ahead, as a black or navy-blue shape came up in front of him.
The Border Patrol agent yelled at him to stop, to which Arriazola responded “I will send you all to hell,” in Spanish, the document alleges.
The agent then heard three rounds of gunfire from Arriazola’s direction.
“[The Border Patrol agent] saw flashes of light, heard multiple gunshots and felt [their] life was endangered,” the complaint stated.
On the way back to the truck, the migrant man told the agent he did not think Arriazola would shoot at them.
Arriazola made his initial appearance in court on Thursday. He has a detention hearing scheduled for May 28 and is being held without bond.
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