美国国家公共电台 NPR A Border Patrol Agent Dies Mysteriously. The Sheriff Has A Simple Theory

 

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The mysterious death of a Border Patrol agent in West Texas last November led to two opposing theories. Some folks were convinced that smugglers or illegal border crossers attacked the agent with rocks. The local sheriff says he knew it was an accident, but nobody wanted to listen. Now he's speaking out to NPR's John Burnett.

JOHN BURNETT, BYLINE¹: Culberson County, Texas, is a vast badland of thorn brush, mountain, big sky and tractor-trailers hurtling down a lonely stretch of Interstate 10. The law in Culberson County is Sheriff Oscar Carrillo. On the night of November 18, he was one of the first responders to a report of a Border Patrol agent down in a culvert. A culvert is a drainage tunnel that runs under a roadway. The husky lawman, in a cowboy hat, returned to the scene recently.

OSCAR CARRILLO: This is the top of the covert². Agent Martinez was right there at the base in a face-up position. And as you can see, it's pretty high.

BURNETT: The drop is about 10 feet onto hard ground. The sheriff surmises³ that Agent Rogelio Martinez and his partner parked on the far side of the freeway to check something out and crossed over on foot right off the top of the culvert.

CARRILLO: They just didn't see the drop-off. You see no guardrail and no reflectors. It's a dark night.

BURNETT: Whether Martinez died accidentally or whether he surprised the nest of smugglers who bashed in his head is the unsolved mystery. Culverts are notorious for stashing⁴ drugs and immigrants. The investigation⁵ had scarcely begun when the Border Patrol union and President Trump⁶ tweeted that the agents were attacked - possibly by immigrants. The Rio Grande is about 30 miles away. Sheriff Carrillo was the first official to suggest the agent's death was an accident. And he took a lot of flak for it.

CARRILLO: We were getting a lot of polls from people, from the interior of United States, all being critical of my stance opposing the possibility of an attack because that's what they were hoping the outcome was. It was bad hombres coming across the border and assaulting our law enforcement.

BURNETT: The case became a flashpoint in the overheated politics of border security. Trump tweeted about it saying, we will and must build the wall. When the sheriff said the agents were not attacked, critics trolled his Facebook page to the point where he had to take it down. The Border Patrol union ridiculed⁷ him for suggesting the agents could have been sideswiped by an 18-wheeler. Carrillo says he never seriously considered that as a cause of the accident. The FBI was called in because they investigate all suspected homicides of federal agents. So that's how they treated it. Liz Rogers has been a defense⁸ attorney in West Texas for 35 years.

LIZ ROGERS: I'm sure they were under enormous pressure to try to produce something to fit what the president was saying. But they had to give us that they had nothing.

BURNETT: Investigators⁹ conducted 650 interviews. They mounted horses to look for human tracks. They reviewed security footage from truck stops. They looked at cellphone pings and studied license¹⁰ plates of cars on the interstate. Rewards went up on billboards¹¹ from Texas to California. And they got nowhere. The other responding agent Stephen Garland, who's recovering from injuries to his head and back, is reportedly unable to remember what happened that moonless night. He was only able to radio to a dispatcher that, we ran into a culvert. Four months later, federal investigators have no suspects and no evidence of an assault.

ROBERT BOATRIGHT: We don't have all the answers yet, and we may never have those answers. So it's still a big unknown.

BURNETT: Robert Boatright is chief patrol agent in the region. The agents' union remains¹² convinced it was murder. A union official, not authorized¹³ to speak publicly on the matter, noted¹⁴ the agents were hurt while investigating possible smuggling¹⁵ activity. He says the agents knew where the culvert was, and it's ludicrous to think they just ran off the edge. The investigation remains open. A medical examiner concluded Martinez died from blunt injuries to the head but left the manner of death undetermined.

Back at the culvert, Sheriff Carrillo stares at a bouquet¹⁶ of plastic yellow flowers that's been placed near the spot where Agent Martinez was found. And he ruminates¹⁷ on the most contentious¹⁸ case in his 26 years in law enforcement.

CARRILLO: They didn't want the truth. The truth is hard to sell.

BURNETT: The sheriff points out that all of Martinez's injuries are on one side of his body - suggesting a fall not a fight. Then he gestures to the sandy landscape.

CARRILLO: You know, they were speculating he had been bashed with rocks. If you can see for yourself, there are no rocks.

BURNETT: It is true that assaults on border agents jumped nearly 50 percent last year as tensions along the border rose. It's also true that 7 out of 10 deaths on the job in the Border Patrol are accidental. John Burnett, NPR News, Van Horn, Texas.

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1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 covert   

adj.隐藏的；暗地里的

参考例句：

• We should learn to fight with enemy in an overt and covert way.我们应学会同敌人做公开和隐蔽的斗争。
• The army carried out covert surveillance of the building for several months.军队对这座建筑物进行了数月的秘密监视。

3 surmises   

v.臆测，推断( surmise的第三人称单数 )；揣测；猜想

参考例句：

• The detective is completely correct in his surmises. 这个侦探所推测的完全正确。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• As the reader probably surmises, a variety of interest tables exists. 正如读者可能推测的那样，存在着各种各样的利息表。 来自辞典例句

4 stashing   

v.贮藏( stash的现在分词 )；隐藏；藏匿；藏起

参考例句：

5 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

6 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

7 ridiculed   

v.嘲笑，嘲弄，奚落( ridicule的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Biosphere 2 was ultimately ridiculed as a research debade, as exfravagant pseudoscience. 生物圈2号最终被讥讽为科研上的大失败，代价是昂贵的伪科学。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She ridiculed his insatiable greed. 她嘲笑他的贪得无厌。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

9 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。

11 billboards   

n.广告牌( billboard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Large billboards have disfigured the scenery. 大型告示板已破坏了景色。 来自辞典例句
• Then, put the logo in magazines and on billboards without telling anyone what it means. 接着我们把这个商标刊在杂志和广告看板上，却不跟任何人透漏它的涵意。 来自常春藤生活英语杂志-2006年4月号

12 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

13 authorized   

a.委任的，许可的

参考例句：

• An administrative order is valid if authorized by a statute.如果一个行政命令得到一个法规的认可那么这个命令就是有效的。

14 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

15 smuggling   

n.走私

参考例句：

• Some claimed that the docker's union fronted for the smuggling ring.某些人声称码头工人工会是走私集团的掩护所。
• The evidence pointed to the existence of an international smuggling network.证据表明很可能有一个国际走私网络存在。

16 bouquet   

n.花束，酒香

参考例句：

• This wine has a rich bouquet.这种葡萄酒有浓郁的香气。
• Her wedding bouquet consisted of roses and ivy.她的婚礼花篮包括玫瑰和长春藤。

17 ruminates   

v.沉思( ruminate的第三人称单数 )；反复考虑；反刍；倒嚼

参考例句：

• Where depression questions, ruminates and hesitates, mania answers with vigor and certainty. 当抑郁患者发出疑问、覆考虑，且裹足不前时，躁狂患者则以充份的活力与信心勇往直前。 来自互联网
• A cow ruminates its food. 牛反刍所吃的食物。 来自互联网

18 contentious   

adj.好辩的，善争吵的

参考例句：

• She was really not of the contentious fighting sort.她委实不是好吵好闹的人。
• Since then they have tended to steer clear of contentious issues.从那时起，他们总想方设法避开有争议的问题。