[Updated at 11:00 p.m.] A sheriff's deputy in central Arizona was shot Friday afternoon by a suspected drug trafficker, authorities said.
The Pinal County deputy, who was not immediately identified, contacted authorities after being wounded in the desert, saying he had been shot by an illegal immigrant with an AK-47, said Lt. Tammy Villar, a sheriff's spokeswoman.
[Posted at 9:05 p.m.] A sheriff's deputy in central Arizona who was shot Friday afternoon by an alleged illegal immigrant has been found after authorities lost contact with him, according to CNN affiliate KPNX.
The report came from a KPNX reporter on board a chopper at the scene.
[Posted at 8:41 p.m.] A sheriff's deputy in central Arizona was shot Friday afternoon by a member of an alleged group of illegal immigrants, authorities said.
The Pinal County deputy, who was not immediately identified, contacted authorities after being wounded in a remote area, said Lt. Tammy Villar, a sheriff's spokeswoman. She said authorities believe he was shot with a AK-47. The deputy was being treated for the wound, but his condition was not immediately known, Villar said.
Pinal County is located between Phoenix and Tuscon and has been described as a key transit point for illegal immigrants. Sheriff Paul Babeu told CNN that an estimated 80 percent of illegal immigrants eventually pass through his county along the way to other locations.
Deputies in the department routinely patrol for illegal immigrants and smugglers, and it's not uncommon for them to be in the field alone, officials said.
It was not immediately clear what led the deputy to engage with the group on Friday.
– CNN's Casey Wian contributed to this report.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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racist mexicans!
I live in Pima County, right next to Pinal Country. I know the area, it is desolate, dangerous, and drug smugglers (who also smuggle human cargo, often at the same time) travel through it on their way to California. Living in Arizona near the Mexican border is not like living on the Vermont/New Hampshire border. Here it is a war-zone. I support legalization of all domestic and agricultural immigrants, but these AK-47 armed persons are a danger for everyone. Millions of dollars are at stake every time they make a human/drug shipment, and they will shoot you if you hinder them. Somebody help us!
John, so you just chimed in to prove you're a bigot? Congrats, we believe you. But now what? What's your point? What does your argument add to the debate? Nothing. You think white people are being demonized? Sorry you feel that way. Even the most obvious left or right people here have a point to argue. You just ran through the room flailing your arms and yelling.
281, Yes you did mention border violence, but you seemed to be focused on making sure we don't blame illegal immigrants. Or I read into your views on changing the title too much.
My point is that people on the board are too worried about semantics and details. Is it an illegal immigrant or a drug trafficker.
It really doesn't matter if this person is English, Jewish, Latino, or whatever. I would wager that a significant portion of the population roaming near the US border in the Arizona dessert is not their for law abiding reasons.
The country needs to accept the fact that illegal border crossings for any reason is a problem and it needs to be stopped and we need to address the reasons why people want to cross the border illegally as well. This needs to be a multi-faceted approach that sticks to our laws of immigration, yet understands the human needs and issues involved and offers solutions to those issues as well.
I am actually kind of surprised that we are not seeing more terrorist threats coming through the southern border as well. I am not an expert on our borders, but it seems it is not that difficult to pass through the US, Mexican border. I would wager crossing into Montana is probably pretty trivial as well though...
NO MORE OIL! NO MORE OIL! NO MORE OIL! NO MORE OIL! NO MORE OIL!
#285 Touche.
Gimmie a break you are a moron! Border violence here is associated with either trafficking drugs or trafficking people. Trafficking people is illegal immigration! What part of that are you unable to wrap your tiny little brain around? And if you look at the research in my #262 post you will see that 2% of the illegals deported in this country are sex criminals and have an average of 4 victims per perpetrator with 960,000 sexual assaults and murders committed by these illegal immigrants. According to that research there are 240,000 illegal immigrant sex offenders in this country and that is based on an estimated 12,000,000 illegal immigrants. That figure has doubled in the last 4 years since that study. So let me ask you this would you rather keep all the illegal immigrants in this country including the now 500,000 sex offenders and let them rape and murder another 2,000,000 times or just give everyone the boot and save their innocent victims.
How about the Deputy Sheriff and his family? Wasn't he out doing his JOB – whether he supported the bill 1070 or not!! Wasn't he the victim?? I am so tired of hearing about the illegal immigrants as victims! Enough already! I agree with 290 – Apply for citizenship legally – oh and if that doesn't work because you've been caught before by the border patrol and now have a history of felony charges, than so be it – you don't get to become a citizen. But if you want to, then contribute and pay taxes, fund our healthcare system, etc. The people who are here illegally – don't need to be here.
Once again Shar...don't put words in my mouth please. Not once did I say none of this was a problem. Not once. I said trafficking of all sorts is a problem and obviously illegal. Keep your hypotheticals to yourself please. I haven't relinquished anyone of fault or placed blame on anyone with my words. I simply called for a fair debate. Which was impossible based on the original content of the article. What can't YOU wrap YOUR tiny little brain around? Thanks for the stats though. I'll be sure to double check my locks tonight.
Good for you CNN. You called it right, as it is drug and people smugglers, NOT illegal aliens that cause the problems. The drug smugglers have AK47s and hurt our AZ police. Thank you.
It is really sad that all these complainers from other states are protesting a state that they dont even live in. Why dont you come on down and live here for a few months and see whats going on.... Have your family shot at or kidnapped or raped... Its not the poor immigrants fault.. they are also killed and raped and beat by these drug cartel.... And why is anyone walking around in arizona with an AK -47... Why does our government allow people from other countries to invade our country like this... I am so sick and tired of these liberal losers....
The arresting of illegal invaders is not tolerated but the shooting of Sheriff's Deputies is!
Kind of coincedental that suspected undocumented aliens shoot at a officer who is out of his assigned jurisdiction with an AK-47 with no other witnesses and only a flesh wound...days after the bill passed and a day before May Day protests??? I hope that isnt the case, but just seems like there will be more to this story in the coming days...
Poor Guy. Hope he is doing okay!
Sooo confused as to why this is becoming a race issue?! No one is saying screw all mexicans or latino's. It's only about the "ILLEGAL" ones. My family migrated Legally before I was born. Yes, it can be done. The bottom line is: People shouldn't be allowed to do illegal things. I don't get to go into a store and steal things and get away with it, why should anyone be allowed to do illegal acts and get away with it.
I don't care what country you are from or what race...but if you come into my country illegally there Should be repercussions!!! It's not about what color your skin is. STOP trying to pull the race card... it's getting really old. By the way I'm Latina.
Also what is all this "they have civil liberties this isn't fair". If they aren't legal citizens of the US than they don't get civil liberties... I am an American that doesn't mean I have Chinese rights, or Mexican rights because derrrr I'm not a citizen of those countries! They'll get civil liberties when they migrate LEGALLY.
As usual, somebody weighs in from far away, all of a sudden, because we had finally had to pass the Federal Law, at the state level, to put some teeth in it, so that we might finally and legally protect ourselves. The claims of racism make me sick. These claims are made by political operatives and the misinformed. To get the Feds, Ice and the Border Patrol to work with us, we get their help sometimes but not at others. The Feds have actually protected the rights of the lawbreakers, rather than law enforcement. The law is to give the officers some steady ground to stand on. Do you not think that they go through the same reasonable suspicion, and probable cause every hour of every shift?
Unfortunately, those who comment should actually visit down here and do a ride along with law enforcement, rather than idiotic speculation that makes a commentator sound ridiculous, and embarrassing. The uninformed telling the public about the issues, makes the situation much worse for all of us. We have been living with this for 2o years of escalation. The feds are useless. the Border Patrol and all federal agents are superbly trained, but they are handcuffed from doing their jobs, because the reality is that their bosses, the politicians and bureaucrats, are power hungry, and afraid of losing their jobs, and their back up plan is to bring in illegals to make them eligible to vote so they can stay in power. Of course if they did their jobs in tune to the will of the people, the majority, then they would not have to be concerned, would they.
Suspected Drug smugglers? I would call over $1 million in pot, confirmation, not suspicion.Yet people like Luis Gutierrez of Illinois make headline grabbing speeches about racism. A typical left trick. We are not talking about Politics here. We are talking about safety and lives. By the way, about half of hispanic residents, and over 70% of Arizonans in all, say enough of this is enough, and have totally backed the plan. I back people lilke Marco Rubio, mostly, but he has it totally wrong on this one. This is like the Politicians in Washington telling the Generals in Afghanistan, how to fight the war, even though they never served a day in the military. We do not have to call them idiots. they do a good job of identifying that to the world, all on their own.