The FBI says there are "strong preliminary indications" that Border Patrol Agent Nicholas Ivie was killed by friendly fire last week near Bisbee, in an incident that also landed another agent in the hospital.
Thus, it appears that Governor Jan Brewer "Paul Babeu'd" herself, by handing out political blame for deaths before the facts came in.
See also:
-Border Patrol Agent Killed, Another Wounded in Shooting Near Bisbee
-Jan Brewer Comments on Border Patrol Agent's Death by Going After Feds, Obama
-Paul Babeu Jumps to Apparently Wrong Conclusion in Vekol Valley
As you may recall, Sheriff Babeu took to Facebook to voice his opinion on the case of five charred bodies found in the Vekol Valley in June.
"Thanks to all our Homicide detectives who are investigating this alarming 5 person murder and the torching of the vehicle (likely in an effort to destroy evidence)," Babeu typed up on Facebook. "All information is pointing that this is connected to the violent drug cartel smuggling in this high smuggling area."
In that same post, Babeu made the political connection, too. "The border is NOT more secure than ever Ms. Napolitano!" he wrote.
Those five bodies turned out to be those of a Tempe family, killed in a murder/suicide. It had nothing to do with a "violent drug cartel."
Now, after Ivie was killed in a shooting last week, Governor Brewer went straight for the politics in a statement released by her office.
"...There should be anger, too. Righteous anger -- at the kind of evil that causes sorrow this deep, and at the federal failure and political stalemate that has left our border unsecured and our Border Patrol in harm's way. Four fallen agents in less than two years is the result.
"It has been 558 days since the Obama administration declared the security of the U.S.-Mexico border 'better now than it has ever been.' I'll remember that statement today."
The FBI says it appears to be friendly fire, and the Border Patrol union head has described the likely scenario in which this happened.
Brewer didn't directly blame border-crossers for the shooting, and thorough details about the shooting haven't been released by the authorities. Still, there hasn't been any mention about any "kind of evil" being involved in the shooting, and authorities haven't said that better border security could've prevented it.
Brewer told the Associated Press she stands by her statement.
