A migrant was killed and a woman was wounded in the stomach when a man fired on a group of migrants drinking water near the Mexican border. The assailant and his brother were arrested.
The incident occurred Tuesday in Hudspeth County, a rural area 90 miles from El Paso, according to court documents filed Thursday. The woman was taken to a hospital in El Paso, where she was recovering, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The entity added that the victims were part of a group of migrants who stopped by a road to drink, when a truck with the two men approached them.
According to court documents, the group had hidden when the truck first passed to avoid detection, but the truck backed up.
Michael and Mark Sheppard, both in their 60s, have been charged with murder, court documents show. It was not clear if any of them had an attorney and no contact information could be obtained Thursday for their views.
The documents show that Michael Sheppard was director of the West Texas Detention Facility, a private detention center that has housed migrant detainees. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson told the AP that there have been no immigration detainees at that facility since October 2019.
Scott Sutterfield, a spokesman for Lasalle Corrections, which operates the detention center, said the director had been fired “due to an incident unrelated to his employment.” He did not elaborate.
Authorities located the van using security video and found a vehicle that matched the description provided by the migrants, court documents say.
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