Nearly two weeks after U.S. Border Patrol agent Rogelio Martinez died near the U.S.-Mexico border, FBI investigators say it might have been an accident rather than an attack that killed him.
Multiple sources close to the investigation told The Dallas Morning News the evidence collected from the scene does not point to an assault, and that it’s possible that Martinez and his partner were sideswiped by the side mirror of a tractor trailer on a cloudy night with no moonlight.
FBI spokeswoman Jeanette Harper confirmed investigators are looking into the possibility the death was accidental but considering other scenarios such as an attack by immigrants or drug traffickers.
“We’re looking at everything,” Harper said, noting it will be weeks or months before the FBI completes the investigation, the Dallas Morning News reported.
The culvert where Martinez and his partner were hit, just feet from Interstate 10, has been the scene of several accidents that may have been caused by wind or drivers overcorrecting.
Culberson County Sheriff Oscar Carrillo, a first responder when the accident occurred, said dispatchers all treated the incident “as an injury, not an assault,” the newspaper reported.
“If this was an assault, believe me, as a sheriff, I’d be the first one out there emphasizing safety in our community and with our deputies, pairing them up,” Carrillo said, according to the Morning News. “But from what I know and see, that was not the case here.”
Border Patrol Council Union Vice President Stuart Harris, however, thinks Martinez was murdered.
"The agents were tracking footprints and were ultimately ambushed and assaulted by, I don’t know who, but it could have been illegal immigrants or drug traffickers," he said, the Dallas Morning News reported.
Harris pointed out the injuries seemed too severe to be accidental and that both men wouldn’t have been injured in the same way by a sideswipe.
Martinez’s partner suffered from memory loss due to his severe head injuries.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.