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| Ipolito "Polo" Campos is taken to a court appearance in Norfolk by sheriff's deputies Wednesday afternoon. Photo by Vasna Wilson / The Virginian-Pilot. |
© February 6, 2003
NORFOLK -- The man who authorities say threatened to poison Virginia's water supplies is a Mexican migrant worker who lived in a trailer on the Eastern Shore with no food or water.
The arrest Tuesday night of Ipolito ``Polo'' Campos led to a shootout at his mobile home that left one man dead and a state trooper injured. Campos was charged with having fraudulent immigration documents, and a prosecutor said in court Wednesday that he could face more serious charges.
The trooper, Howard A. Chambers, was listed in good condition Wednesday afternoon at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, according to a hospital spokeswoman. He's been on the force for five years and works in Mathews County.
Shots rang out when Chambers and federal, state and local law-enforcement officers armed with a search warrant and an arrest warrant for Campos stormed a mobile home on Kellam Drive in Accomac at 9:40 p.m. Tuesday.
It was unclear who fired the first shot, but Chambers suffered four or five buckshot wounds to his arm, authorities said.
In the gun battle, an unidentified man was killed. A spokesperson from the Norfolk medical examiner's office said the cause was a shotgun blast to the neck.
Officials said they were trying to identify the victim and locate his family. Court records said he went by ``Falco,'' but a neighbor said he was called ``Flaco.''
At a federal court hearing in Norfolk Wednesday, Campos told a judge through a Spanish-language interpreter that he had no money for a lawyer. He said he had a wife and six children but did not say where they live.
He was ordered jailed until a bond hearing Friday morning. He could face additional charges of attempted murder of a police officer and possession of an illegal weapon, said Mike Smythers, a supervisory assistant U.S. attorney.
Smythers told the judge that Campos fired a sawed-off shotgun at police as they entered the trailer. The other man fired a .22-caliber rifle.
Smythers said Campos was an illegal immigrant who once was turned back to his native Mexico when he tried unlawfully to enter the United States.
The FBI and state police declined to release any further information. Accomack County Sheriff Robert D. Crockett, whose deputies also participated, could not be reached for comment.
The FBI had planned to conduct the raid Wednesday morning but moved it up to Tuesday night after learning that media outlets had planned to report on the criminal charges against Campos.
Initial reports from the scene that two people were dead were erroneous.
Campos was charged with using phony immigration documents and a false Social Security number. He faces five years in prison if convicted but could face life if he is convicted of shooting the officer.
An Immigration and Naturalization Service official said Wednesday that the agency has no record on Ipolito Campos. Immigration documents on file with a seafood company where Campos worked do not exist in INS files, and the Social Security number Campos provided to the business belongs to someone else, court records say.
The case unfolded two weeks ago, when an unidentified person reported to the Accomack County Sheriff's Department that Campos said he was from an ``Arabian'' country and was sent to poison Virginia's waters, according to federal court records. ``If he did not poison the water someone would kill him,'' the records say.
The case was turned over to the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. An FBI spokesman and other federal officials said the threat was never considered valid.
``We wish to assure the public that there is no credible evidence which indicates an actual threat to the water supply,'' said Phil Mann, the spokesman.
Campos, believed to be 38, began working for Eastern Shore Seafood Products Inc. in Mappsville on Dec. 28, 2001. He worked aboard fishing vessels between Norfolk and Atlantic City, N.J., but he was fired in December after testing positive in a random drug test, the court records say.
Seafood company workers declined to comment Tuesday and Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the owner of the trailer where the shooting occurred allowed reporters inside.
The trailer is at the end of a rutted dirt road in rural Accomack County, south of Parksley. The property is on the edge of a farmer's field and has few neighbors.
Belarmino ``Benny'' Bedoya owns the trailer and runs an auto repair shop next door. He said he was allowing three men, whom he knew as Carlos, Flaco and Polo, to stay there rent-free.
``Carlos,'' listed in court records as Ricardo Guillen, was staying somewhere else the night of the raid, Bedoya said.
The trailer was sparsely furnished, dirty and lacked running water and a telephone. Few personal belongings were on hand. A Spanish-English dictionary sat on one bed.
The only food appeared to be a package of corn tortillas. Bedoya said he had been taking the men food.
The walls of a bedroom were riddled with what appeared to be bullet holes and shotgun blasts. There was a pool of blood on the floor.
Bedoya hadn't known Polo for long, he said, but agreed to put him up. Bedoya said Polo and Flaco told him that, like him, they were from Mexico.
He said Polo was no threat to the water supply.
``It's crazy,'' he said. ``No. I don't believe it.''
Bullet holes Wednesday mark a wall of the house where Ipolito "Polo" Campos lived on the Eastern Shore. Photo by Steve Earley / The Virginian-Pilot.
Reach Tim McGlone at tmcglone@pilotonline.com or (757) 446-2343.
Reach Matthew Roy at mroy@pilotonline.com or (757) 446-2540.
