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Texas Governor Offers $20K Reward For Information About Murder Of Border Agent

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Will Racke Immigration and Foreign Policy Reporter
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of anyone who perpetrated an attack that left one Border Patrol agent dead and another seriously wounded.

Rogelio Martinez and his partner were working in Texas’ Big Bend sector on Sunday when they reported they had been injured and were in need of assistance, according to Customs and Border Protection. Responding agents transported the wounded agents to a local hospital, where Martinez passed away from his injuries, the CBP officials said.

Shortly after CBP’s confirmation, Breitbart Texas reported that local border agents with knowledge of the incident told representatives of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) that illegal immigrants had ambushed Martinez and his partner, beating them with rocks.

“What we know is that Border Patrol Agent Rogelio Martinez appears to have been ambushed by a group of illegal aliens whom he was tracking,” Brandon Judd, president of the NBPC, told Breitbart Texas. “Our agents’ reports from the ground say that he was struck in the head multiple times with a rock or rocks.”

That account was independently confirmed by a CBP official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.

“They were beaten with rocks,” the official told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “As in rock in hand and smashing it into their heads. They were beaten.”

On Monday, Abbott authorized a reward of up to $20,000 through the Texas Crime Stoppers program for information that results in the “arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the murder.”

“We owe a great deal of gratitude to the brave men and women of the United States Border Patrol who serve every day to protect our homeland,” Abbott said in a statement, adding that it was important that investigators “receive any and all information to help apprehend and deliver swift justice to those responsible.”

CBP has not released further details about the circumstances of Martinez’s death. The FBI’s El Paso office is leading the investigation, a CBP spokesperson said.

Martinez, 36, was from El Paso and entered duty with the Border Patrol in August 2013.

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