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Private detention center warden & his bro shot migrants on side of road In Hudspeth Co...for fun?


bolverk

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One can only imagine how they treat them on the inside.

Two Migrants Shot, One Fatally, Along Roadway in Rural Texas
A detention center warden in Hudspeth County is one of two men arrested in connection with the attack east of El Paso, a law enforcement official said.

HOUSTON — Two unauthorized migrants were shot, one of them fatally, by two men in a pickup truck that approached them as they walked along a roadway in West Texas, according to court documents filed on Thursday.

After the shooting, which took place on Tuesday evening, the truck was found parked at a home in Hudspeth County, a rural area east of El Paso that runs from the border with Mexico to the state line of New Mexico.

Two men were arrested in connection with the shooting, law enforcement officials said: Michael Sheppard, the warden at a local privately run detention center, and his twin brother, Mark Sheppard.

Both men were charged with manslaughter, according to affidavits filed by investigators in the case. Neither could be immediately reached for comment.

The killing came amid a sharply escalating national debate over the treatment of migrants and how to respond to a record number of asylum seekers and other arrivals at the southern border.

Spoiler

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott has been busing thousands of migrants, who are awaiting asylum proceedings, north to cities run by Democrats, saying he was doing so to relieve the pressure on resources in often poor rural counties along the border. And earlier this month, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida arranged for 48 migrants, who had been in San Antonio, to be flown to Martha’s Vineyard.

The migrants who were shot on Tuesday were many miles from the border, according to the affidavits, crossing through the desert in an apparent attempt to avoid detection by law enforcement or border officials.

They were walking in a group along a roadway near Sierra Blanca around 7 p.m. when they stopped at a water tank, according to the affidavits. As the pickup truck approached, the group, which included at least four people, tried to hide. The truck drove by and then stopped and backed up, according to the filings.

The driver then left the pickup truck, according to the affidavits.

During interviews with federal agents, the migrants said that they had heard one of the men shout in Spanish for them to “Come out,” peppering his language with profanity, before revving the engine of the truck, according to the affidavits. The revving of the engine led the migrants to believe that the truck was leaving, at which point, they told investigators, the two shots were fired, according to the affidavits.

The driver leaned on the truck’s hood and fired two shots at the group of migrants before climbing back in and driving away, according to the affidavits.

One shot hit one of the migrants in the head, killing him; another shot hit a female migrant in the stomach, the official said. She was taken to a hospital, where she was recovering, according to a statement from the Texas Department of Public Safety, which is investigating the case.

The truck was traced by investigators, working with the U.S. Border Patrol, to a home in Sierra Blanca, the official said.

“We all responded,” First Deputy Chief Lasaro Salgado of the Hudspeth County sheriff’s office said, describing the night of the shooting. “We handed the investigation to the Rangers.”

The deputy said that the Texas Rangers had arrested the Sheppards, both 60.

In their interviews with the police, summarized in the affidavits, the two men said that they had been out looking for animals to shoot, first telling investigators that they had been looking for ducks, and then birds and finally javelinas, hoglike animals that are common to the drier parts of West Texas.

Mark Sheppard said that they had stopped the truck because they believed they had spotted a javelina, according to the affidavits, and he said his brother had left the truck with a shotgun and had fired two times. Neither of them went to check on whether they had struck anything, he said, according to the affidavits.

He denied to the police that either man had yelled anything before opening fire, according to the affidavits, and afterward, the men left to attend a county water board meeting.

The F.B.I., the Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations are assisting in the investigation, according to a spokesman for the Rangers, who declined to provide further details.

Michael Sheppard worked as the warden of the West Texas Detention Center in Sierra Blanca, a site run by LaSalle Corrections, a company that operates more than a dozen private detention facilities in Texas, Louisiana and Georgia, according to the company’s website.

A spokesman for the company, Scott Sutterfield, said in an emailed statement that Mr. Sheppard had been “terminated due to an off-duty incident unrelated to his employment” and that no further details could be provided because of the “ongoing criminal investigation.”

Representative Veronica Escobar, whose district includes El Paso and who has been vocal about combating anti-immigration sentiment, called on the Department of Justice to begin an investigation into what she described as an apparent hate crime against migrants.

 

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1 minute ago, Pato del Muerto said:

You shoot and kill a guy on the side of the road for no reason and the first charge you catch is manslaughter?

That was my first thought too, but I think I recall one of our lawyers explain on another case that you do that just so that you can hold them and bring up murder charges later.

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3 minutes ago, bolverk said:

That was my first thought too, but I think I recall one of our lawyers explain on another case that you do that just so that you can hold them and bring up murder charges later.

It says neither could be reached for comment so it doesn’t sound like they are in jail.

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13 minutes ago, Bama Chick said:

 


Don’t have to imagine.

 

 

 

 

 

Jesus Christ. Shut all the private prisons / detention centers down and charge them with hate crimes. The article also questions why they're only charged with manslaughter.

From the Trib link:

Quote

 

A 2018 report found officials at the Sierra Blanca facility had grievously abused 80 men who were detained at the center. Over a week, the men faced beatings, racial taunts and sexual abuse at the hands of the center’s officials who were under the leadership of Mike Sheppard at the time. The Intercept reported the allegations more than four years ago.

Mike Sheppard was accused of punching a man in the face and kicking him while he was handcuffed on the ground in solitary confinement, according to The Intercept.

Before the 2018 incident, the West Texas facility came under scrutiny from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of Detention Oversight, citing health services deficiencies and a lack of training on how to use nonlethal weapons. Inmates at the time resorted to using plastic bags for toilets and had to kill a rattlesnake found in their sleeping quarters when officials failed to respond.

*****

As The Intercept reported in 2018, a report from three entities detailed African detainees’ allegations of abuse. It found that officers used racist epithets and engaged in hate crimes. It was unclear late Thursday what, if any, action federal officials took after the report was released and published in The Intercept.

 

I wonder which church these psychopaths go to.

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7 hours ago, bolverk said:

Jesus Christ. Shut all the private prisons / detention centers down and charge them with hate crimes. The article also questions why they're only charged with manslaughter.

From the Trib link:

I wonder which church these psychopaths go to.

All of them.

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9 hours ago, bolverk said:

Looks like they're twins and they hold zero resemblance to the "tough guy" photo above.

Mike-Sheppard-right-Mark-Sheppard-Left.j

https://www.ktsm.com/local/el-paso-news/two-men-arrested-for-killing-a-migrant-and-injuring-another/

All these racist inbred idiots look the same. Bald, fat, and goatee/trimmed beard. They look like walking thumbs.

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9 hours ago, bolverk said:

Looks like they're twins and they hold zero resemblance to the "tough guy" photo above.

Mike-Sheppard-right-Mark-Sheppard-Left.j

https://www.ktsm.com/local/el-paso-news/two-men-arrested-for-killing-a-migrant-and-injuring-another/

 

10 minutes ago, Captainant said:

What's icono's new handle? Does he have any new posts since these guys got pinched? I know he was a "shoot em at the border" kinda dude 

Must have removed his tailored Texans jersey before his mug shot.

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45 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Private detention centers seem like a bad idea. They're going to attract workers and leaders that probably can't get work at the fed/state run detention centers.

I imagine more than a few of the private centers actively punish the detainees which isn't part of their role in the process.

 

They also add time to the sentences for misbehavior.

I'm sure when they are passing out those punishments, the fact that they are also padding their bottom line never enters their minds.

 

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4 hours ago, crash_davis said:

All these racist inbred idiots look the same. Bald, fat, and goatee/trimmed beard. They look like walking thumbs.

 

13 hours ago, bolverk said:

Looks like they're twins and they hold zero resemblance to the "tough guy" photo above.

Mike-Sheppard-right-Mark-Sheppard-Left.j

https://www.ktsm.com/local/el-paso-news/two-men-arrested-for-killing-a-migrant-and-injuring-another/

Brothers by another mother with these guys

Left to right: Travis McMichael, William "Roddie" Bryan and Gregory McMichael

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Your daddy ever tell you how Uncle Mac come to his reward? Gunned down on his own porch over in Hudspeth County. Seven or eight of 'em come up there, all wantin' this, wantin' that. Uncle Mac went back in the house to get the shotgun. Well, they was ahead of him. Shot him in his doorway. Aunt Ella come out, tried to stop the bleeding. Uncle Mac all the while trying to get that shotgun. They just sat there on their horses, watchin' him die. After a while, one of 'em said somethin' in Indian and they turned. Left out. Uncle Mac knew the score, even if Aunt Ella didn't. Shot through the left lung. And that was that - as they say.

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19 minutes ago, fattyflattie said:

I’ll put my involvement in the Hispanic community throughout my entire life  against yours any day of the week.  Or maybe you can tell me how many years you lived in Mexico?  

Great. I'm glad you're involved. It should make you all the more uncomfortable that you vote for and support people that demonize that community. Those folks you voted for have responsibility for this murder. And, your vote means you have responsibility for it. If that makes you angry, you should change it.  

13 minutes ago, fattyflattie said:

The truth is you’re a bitch who projects on the internet.  Come a HH or tailgate I bet you wouldn’t be as sure in those checks your mouth is writing.  

I would gladly tell you to your face that supporting and voting for people who demonize Mexicans directly and predictably leads to acts of violence like this. If that makes you uncomfortable, good. I'm glad. It means you are not a completely horrible person. You to continue to have a choice moving forward. What you do with that choice determines the type of person you truly are. 

Edited by Dahobbs
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1 minute ago, Captainant said:

You voted for trump and abbott despite their family separation policy and child concentration camps, and the demonization of brown people coming near our border. Please continue doing your Johnny Sack impression and tell us how many hatian orphanages you donate to

Thank you for reminding me that political parties are only about 1 issue.  I had forgotten.  Not happy that Trump carried over kids in cages from your boy Obama, and expanded on it, but that happened long after any votes were cast.  Feel free to link me to Abbotts "shooting immigrants" policy, and I'll give it a read.  

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1 minute ago, Dahobbs said:

I would gladly tell you to your face that supporting and voting for people who demonize Mexicans directly and predictably leads to acts of violence like this. If that makes you uncomfortable, good. I'm glad. It means you are not a completely horrible person. You to continue to have a choice moving forward. What you do with that choice determines the type of person you truly are. 

Good.  I'd love to see who I've been chatting with all these years. 

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