A Wisconsin man was killed on Wednesday after fleeing a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in West Texas and shooting at law enforcement officers as they pursued his vehicle, the authorities said.
The man, James Douglas McMillan, 33, of Greenfield, Wis., stopped at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in Sierra Blanca, Texas, about 90 miles southeast of El Paso, on Wednesday morning, but drove away after a Border Patrol K-9 was alerted to his vehicle and agents told him to pull over for a secondary search, the police said.
Troopers from the Texas Department of Public Safety and helicopters from its aircraft patrol division were called to assist in the high-speed pursuit on Interstate 10 around 10:30 a.m. local time, according to Sheridan Nolen, a spokeswoman for the department.
During the pursuit, Mr. McMillan began shooting out his window at state troopers, as well as at officers from Border Patrol and local sheriff’s offices. He also fired his weapon “indiscriminately at civilian vehicles,” Ms. Nolen said.
Officers returned fire and performed a maneuver that typically involves striking a suspect’s vehicle to force them to lose control.
Mr. McMillan then stopped driving and barricaded himself in his vehicle, Ms. Nolen said, “eventually” pointing his weapon at officers, who shot and killed him.
No passengers were in Mr. McMillan’s vehicle. It was not immediately clear which officers discharged their weapons.
No officers or civilians were injured during the pursuit, Ms. Nolen said.
The Border Patrol and its parent agency, Customs and Border Protection, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The vehicle that Mr. McMillan was driving had been reportedly stolen out of Arizona, Ms. Nolen said.
Hannah Ziegler is a general assignment reporter for The Times, covering topics such as crime, business, weather, pop culture and online trends.
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