Officer Kenneth Collings of the Phoenix Police Department was killed in 1988 during the arrest of two robbery suspects at a local bank when one opened fire. One of the robbers, Ismael Conde, was quickly arrested but the other, Rudy Romero, escaped to Mexico. Romero was caught in southern Mexico in 2000 and brought back to stand trial. The Arizona Attorney General’s Office credits help from the Phoenix Police Department, the FBI, the Attorney General for the Republic of Mexico, and the Mexican Federal Agency of Investigation — a rare and welcome act of extradition from our southern neighbor. In March 2003, Romero was sentenced to 98 years in state prison.Marc Atkinson was just 28 when he was shot and killed in a 1999 ambush by an illegal alien from Mexico. Officer Atkinson was a five-year veteran of the Phoenix Police Force, and was survived by his wife Karen, infant son and two siblings. The killer, Felipe Petrona-Cabanas, had around a pound of cocaine in his car when apprehended with two other Mexican nationals. The three came from a farming area in the state of Guerrero near Acapulco, and said they came to the United States to work but couldn’t find any. A notable detail in the case is how an armed citizen, Rory Vertigan, came to the aid of the shot officer and helped apprehend the Mexicans, who certainly would have escaped over the border if they could have.

Phoenix Police Officer Robert Sitek was shot four times 4/12/03 during a traffic stop altercation with an illegal alien that became violent. Sitek and his partner David Thwing were on routine patrol when a red truck cut off their squad car, and when the officers stopped the truck the driver began shooting. Officer Sitek was in cardiac arrest by the time he reached the hospital and lost a considerable amount of blood. Shooter Francisco A. Gallardo was a “Mexican citizen who had recently completed a seven-year prison term for aggravated assault.” He had been deported after his release but had returned to Arizona. Gallardo was shot and killed as he tried to escape by Officer Thwing.

Medical Update, June 5, 2003: Officer Rob Sitek has had a slow but gradually successful recovery from injuries that surely would have been fatal to most. At nearly two months after the shooting, he has pulled out of a three-week coma, is still unable to walk but is determined to do so and eventually return to work.
The murder of Kris Eggle, a park ranger in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in southern Arizona on August 9, 2002, was little noted by the media, although the press has paid considerable attention to the deaths of illegal aliens on the border. By contrast, Ranger Eggle was shot down by Mexican drug dealers who were using Organ Pipe as a route for their smuggling. Only 28 when he was murdered, Eggle was a valedictorian and an Eagle Scout who joined the National Park Service because he loved the outdoors. (Organ Pipe is considered to be the most dangerous of the national park system: 200,000 illegal aliens and 700,000 pounds of drugs were intercepted at the park in 2001.) The Eggle family is determined that his death will not be forgotten by working for real border control, including a Washington press conference with Tom Tancredo in the fall of 2002. The Eggles have a family website, www.kriseggle.org, to inform interested parties about what they are doing.

Border Patrol Agent James Epling died in performing his duties along the Mexican border, apparently drowning in the Colorado River in pursuit of several illegal aliens and was last seen along the shoreline as he followed the foreigners. He was the seventh Border officer to die in the line of duty in Yuma. Agent Epling was just 24 and was the father of three, going on four. His father-in-law is a retired Border Patrol agent from the McAllen, Texas, sector.

Just before disappearing, Epling had pulled a Chinese woman illegal alien out of the river. Three other Chinese were taken into custody the night of the disappearance, along with one Mexican believed to be the smuggler. Although there has been no evidence of foul play actually found, the smuggler can be charged in the death.

These two deputies were shot Dec. 16 in Mesa by an illegal alien whom they were trying to arrest while executing a search warrant. Fortunately, both have wounds that are not life threatening, although Lewis Argetsinger may lose the use of his hand. Sean Pearce was shot in the chest but was protected by body armor; he was hit in the stomach just below the vest. Sean Pearce is the son of Rep. Russell Pearce of the Arizona legislature who was in Washington to appear on an immigration panel at the Brookings Institute when he received the news that his son had been shot. Russell Pearce was an active supporter of Prop. 200 which won at the polls in November and requires that voters and would-be welfare recipients show proof of citizenship.

Russell Pearce is a father whose police officer son Sean was shot and wounded by an illegal alien. Pearce is also a member of the Arizona House of Representatives.

Rep. Pearce worked for border enforcement before his son was shot and was a strong voice for Prop 200, the Arizona citizen’s initiative requiring that prospective voters and welfare recipients show identification, which passed in Nov. 2004. But now he has one more reason, a personal one, to work through the legislative process to protect America’s sovereignty and people.

As it happened, on the day Sean was wounded, Rep. Pearce was in Washington to speak at Brookings on the subject of immigration policy. “I was interrupted and given a message to call (wife) LuAnne in reference to an emergency at home,” Rep. Pearce remarked later. “I called to find out my son Sean had been shot while executing a search warrant on a home for homicide suspects and was being flown by helicopter to the hospital. I later learned the suspects and the shooter were illegal aliens and had been issued Matricula Consular cards so they could get services in the United States.”

In another case of justice denied, the murderer of Phoenix high school student Tanee Natividad merely crossed the border into Mexico to escape law enforcement. A local television station was able to track down the murderer in a bar just a few miles across the border without much effort. Max LaMadrid has no reason to hide because the Mexican government actually helps violent criminals escape American justice. According to Arizona Attorney General Janet Napolitano, action by the Mexican supreme court making it more difficult to extradite criminals has “created an incentive for people to flee into Mexico as a safe harbor.” At one time, Mexico would not extradite criminals who might be subject to the death penalty; the Mexican court recently extended this “protection” to any Mexican who might receive a life sentence, thereby giving a free pass to rapists, kidnappers and child molesters. In fact, the investigating reporter found 100 cases of violent criminals from the Phoenix area escaping into Mexico in just the last few years. Meanwhile, the grieving family of 16-year-old Tanee gets no justice — like thousands of others in the southwest.

Another tragic addition to the list of unnessary deaths caused by violent illegal aliens was the newlywed couple, James and Emilia Lee of Huachuca City, Arizona, who had been married only six weeks. They were killed Oct. 16 when a truckload of at least 17 illegal aliens traveling at 90 mph crashed into several vehicles near the town of Sierra Vista, leaving a horrific scene of carnage. The aliens were trying to escape police after they had run a stop sign, and the truck rammed into a line of nine vehicles waiting for a turn light near Fort Huachuca.

James Lee’s son Joe and grandson Christopher…. James was 75 and his new bride Emilia was 71. The couple had been planning a fishing trip to Mexico with Joe and other relatives. Both James and Emilia were known as neighborly, never hesitating to reach out to help. James often helped out when someone needed a home repair done, and Emilia was an active volunteer for her church. Nearly 300 friends and family attended the services for the Lees held Oct. 21.
For information about crime victims of illegal aliens throughout the United States, see Immigration’s Human Cost and The Dustin Inman Society.