Posted on 07/14/2011 9:49:34 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
McALLEN — At least three shots were fired across the Rio Grande last Thursday, nearly striking two men working on a riverside pump station.
The bullets hit Hidalgo County Water Improvement District 3’s pump station, just feet from where the employees were working, about 3:30 p.m., said Othal E. Brand Jr., the water district’s general manager. Both men escaped unharmed.
Brand said Border Patrol agents were called to the scene. A Border Patrol spokesman said there’s no record of the incident, but that wouldn’t be unusual given the circumstances.
Asked how District 3 will react, Brand said he didn’t have an easy answer.
“Well, the old South Texas way is just to give them a gun,” Brand said. “I’ve told them, ‘Y’all want to carry a gun, y’all can carry guns.’”
Border Patrol vehicles frequent the area surrounding District 3’s pump station, located immediately west of International Boulevard near Hidalgo. It’s located south of the border wall on the Rio Grande.
Nearly all Rio Grande Valley cities and utilities depend on local water districts to pump water from the Rio Grande to reservoirs and treatment plants across the region. Employees often work alone at pumps just yards from Mexico’s northern border.
In November, three people crossed the river and threatened a Delta Lake Irrigation District employee who was clearing brush near the district’s pump. They told him to stop clearing brush and said they’d be back later to make sure he’d stopped, said Troy Allen, the district’s general manager.
“They didn’t brandish any weapons, but to him that was threat enough,” Allen said.
Allen said he called Border Patrol, but the men weren’t seen again.
“Since then, we haven’t had any problems,” Allen said.
On Nov. 12, 2009, several men crossed the border and attacked a Donna Irrigation District employee working at the district’s pump, located west of the Donna-Rio Bravo International Bridge. The men broke a window in the man’s car, but he escaped without injury.
The assailants also ransacked the district’s pump station before stealing a cell phone, a small refrigerator and a lawn mower.
“Luckily, they didn’t do any damage to our building or our pump there, though they did take a few items,” Zapata said.
Such incidents aren’t new for the Valley’s water districts.
A wooden barricade near Hidalgo County Irrigation District 2’s pump shields transformers and other electrical equipment from gunfire, said Sonny Hinojosa, the district’s general manager. It’s been around for at least 16 years.
I remember when we used them, Othal.
But Napolitano and her boss claim the border is safer than ever. Jerks, all.
Mexicans are getting away with everything because they know this bunch in Washington will stand by them..They are just like the blacks who murder and brutalize old people..I saw tapes of the black bastards beating up old men one was a old black man and it showed the whole beating someone used their cell phone to record it..The smart ass black man beat the life out of the old man..You could see him and his girlfriend on the video..but so far no arrest..they wanted his car and took it..drove away slowly..The scum bag would have been in another world if I had of been around..People were just standing around and watching the poor old man being beaten..Sick bunch of bastards need to be hunted down like the dogs they are.. Obama generation of black and Mexican bullies..
Perhaps we need some more men of the quality of Charlie Askins Jr or Bill Jordan for border work. But then, the downstream cities would be complaining of floating Mexican bodies clogging their pump intakes.
So?? Fire 300 Back!
Ping!
If the barricade's that good, how about fitting it with ports through which employees can get behind and answer incoming fire in like manner?
I always have my CCW on my person, even in my office here in S. TX. When I’m working near the border, I take my Mini 14. I even have a pistol on my desk at my office. Lots of folks down here don’t like us. Had a Mexican in a pickup try to run me down on my Harley a couple of years ago in Corpus Christi.
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