Man Is Identified in San Ysidro Border Slaying

An Orange County man who was shot to death Monday after he apparently went berserk while waiting in a line of cars to cross the Mexican border was identified Tuesday as a 37-year-old La Habra man, police said.

Raymond T. Higgs was shot twice in the chest by a U.S. Customs agent who said Higgs lunged at him with a knife at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the busiest crossing point along the Mexican border, police said.

Police said Higgs had been sitting in a line of traffic waiting to enter the United States from Mexico when he began threatening other motorists with a knife and a tire iron.

“He was stabbing himself in a bizarre way in the chest” with the weapons, Police Lt. Phil Jarvis said.

Higgs was shot in front of the Customs inspection booth after agents tried to slow him down by spraying him with a fire extinguisher, police said.

No one else was injured, although a Tijuana police officer narrowly missed being stabbed by Higgs on the Mexican side of the border.

Officials said Higgs jabbed at the officer with a tire iron, but the blade was deflected by a radio microphone clipped to the officer’s chest.