Border Patrol investigating death of drug suspect at Texas checkpoint
U.S. Border Patrol agents are investigating the death of a 36-year-old man who was in federal custody at a Texas facility on Friday morning.
Roger Maier, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, told the Los Angeles Times that agents immediately began administering CPR after the man was found unresponsive inside a holding cell around 10:40 a.m. on Friday.
The man, who was being held at a checkpoint near routes 62 and 180 east of El Paso, NM, was rushed to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead a short time later.
Maier told The Times the dead man was a U.S. citizen and said he was being held on drug possession charges. He declined to identify him or say when the man was arrested.
A cause of death was not immediately clear, and a spokesperson for the El Paso County medical examiner’s office was not immediately available for comment.
The incident is being investigated by Border Patrol’s Internal Affairs division.
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