Monitor Breaks Shocking Story of Border Patrol Agent Killing Himself After Assaulting Immigrants

Mar 13, 2014
8:48 PM

A story from The Monitor written today by reporters Ildefonso Ortiz, Karen Antonacci and Jared Taylor is sending shock waves through our online community. According to the report, 32-year-old Border Patrol agent named Esteban Manzanares “apparently committed suicide” after ” after kidnapping and assaulting an immigrant family that illegally crossed the border Wednesday evening.” The story adds that Manzanares “sexually assaulted and slashed a woman, her 14-year-old daughter and another 14-year-old girl with a knife Wednesday afternoon, leaving the mother and one daughter behind before he took the other teen with him, three law enforcement officials unauthorized to speak to the media confirmed.” The incident occurred in on the Texas-Mexico border, “near Abram in a brushy area not far from the Rio Grande, where he raped the woman and then slashed her wrists, an investigator familiar with the case said.”

Esteban Manzanares (Facebook)

Esteban Manzanares (Facebook)

You can read the full story here.

As you might imagine, online reaction to the story has been intense. Here is just a sampling:

Here are a few from our Facebook:

“The saddest thing is that, though this story made it to the news, most stories of killings and abuse in the Southern border don’t.”

“What a sick coward! People all along their journeys are just trying to better their lives and the system in place allows for things like this to happen not only in the US but Mexico as well.”

“This is what happens when political discourse (GOP) suggests undocumented immigrants are less than human (“illegal”) and are therefore treated as such by law enforcement (Border Patrol/ ICE) when inhumane policies are enacted (Obama Admin) against them. Members of our government should share the blame. BEYOND APPALLED.”

“And the local TV news isn’t covering it in detail. The Monitor has a good story but nothing on tv. Please help expose all the corruption in the Rio Grande Valley.”

“Where are Marco Rubio’s and Ted Cruz’s congressional presentations on this issue ! ? ! #SOSRealAmericans”

“Poor women!!! I’m sure there’s many more just like him.”

This news comes at time when the Border Patrol has faced criticism for excessive use of force. The Monitor story also said that both the FBI and U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed the incident, but have yet to share more information. According to the Monitor story, “the CBP said it was working on a ‘search and recovery operation following the encountering of an injured adult female during regular CBP operations who provided information that she and two other females had been assaulted by a male subject.'”