Charges in murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry
Nearly five months after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was gunned down near the Arizona-Mexico border, today a federal judge unsealed 14 count indictment charging Manuel Osorio-Arellanes and at least two others with Terry's murder. At today's arraignment, Osorio-Arellanes pleaded not guilty.
Though others were charged, only Osorio-Arellanes was named in the indictment because the others are fugitives and their identities remain under seal.
"Today's incitement is an important step, but it is only a first step to serving justice on behalf of Agent Brian Terry," U.S. Attorney Dennis K. Burke said in a statement.
U.S. Attorney Burke, who announced today's indictment, was also the U.S. Attorney on a major ATF alleged gunwalking operation in Phoenix known as "Fast and Furious".
Agent: I was ordered to let U.S. guns into Mexico
Terry's death is at the center of the so-called "gunwalker" controversy at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). Insiders say ATF used a controversial intelligence-gathering strategy called lettings guns "walk," and allowed thousands of assault weapons to hit the streets to see where they'd end up.
As CBS News has reported, two AK-47 variant assault rifles that ATF allegedly let "walk" were found at the murder scene of Agent Terry on Dec. 14. According to the indictment unsealed today, Osorio-Arellanes was part of an "armed group of illegal aliens that engaged in a firefight with Agent Terry and other border patrol agents...One of the group shot Agent Terry who died of the wound." Osorio-Arellanes was also wounded in the exchange and has been in federal custody on felony immigration charges.
