Six charged with shooting off-duty Border Patrol agent's car

MISSION — Six suspects faced felony charges Friday in connection with the firing of a single gunshot at the windshield of an off-duty U.S. Border Patrol agent's car.

The agent, who police said was "in the wrong place at the wrong time," told officers he noticed at least one vehicle had followed him late Tuesday night from northern Hidalgo County to Mission, police said. Sitting in the backseat of the agent's vehicle was his young daughter, who was going to visit her grandmother.

Two men who were following the agent in a pickup truck confronted him and fired a single round from a .22-caliber pistol into the windshield of his Cadillac at the parking lot of IHOP, 314 N. Shary Road, police said.

The two men fled, but a Mission patrol officer stopped another truck with four people shortly after the incident, which occurred about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, said Sgt. Jody Tittle, a Mission police spokesman. The occupants of the second truck had been serving as a lookout, police said.

Interviews with the four suspects led investigators to 2420 Lindberg St. in McAllen. About 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, officers located and arrested the two other suspects. Investigators searched a truck parked at the house and found a .22-caliber pistol and a cartridge casing inside the vehicle.

The six suspects were charged Friday afternoon in Mission Municipal Court with one count each of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a possible fine of up to $10,000. The six are:

>> Maria Teresa de la Rosa, 26, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico living in McAllen.

>> Claudia Elena Gomez, 27, of McAllen.

>> Juan Vite Martinez, 39, an undocumented immigrant living in Alamo.

>> Nerida Garcia, 31, of San Juan.

>> Nieves Ramirez, 25, of Mission.

>> Jose Wencelado Mejia, 18, of Mission.

Police said Ramirez fired the round into the agent's car and Mejia was with him in the truck at the IHOP parking lot on North Shary Road.

The suspects told investigators they were targeting another Cadillac that was virtually the same as the agent's vehicle, Tittle said. Police would not say why the suspects were after the other vehicle.

Police said in a statement that the off-duty agent, who lives in Arizona, "was in the wrong place at the wrong time" and was not "involved with the crime, other than being mistaken" as the targeted vehicle.

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Jared Taylor covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4439.