Six in custody after shooting at IHOP

June 24, 2009 - 9:42 PM

McALLEN - Police detained six people in connection with a shooting that involved an off-duty U.S. Border Patrol agent and his daughter Wednesday morning in Mission.

Police believe two men were immediately involved in the shooting, which occurred about 1 a.m. Wednesday at the 300 block of Shary Road, said Sgt. Jody Tittle, a Mission police spokesman.

The off-duty agent told police he noticed a vehicle that followed him late Tuesday night from northern Hidalgo County to Mission, Tittle said.

The men following the Border Patrol agent confronted him and displayed a gun near the parking lot of IHOP, 314 N. Shary Road, police said.

The agent displayed his weapon and one of the men fired one bullet from a pistol into his dashboard, police said. The suspects then fled the area.

No one was injured in the shooting.

Further investigation into the case led police to detain three men and three women Wednesday afternoon.

Investigators continued to question the sextet Wednesday evening, Tittle said. Any criminal charges in the case would likely be brought today (Thursday), he added. However, investigators did gather information that lead them to a house on Lindberg Avenue in McAllen later that morning.

Police seized three pickup trucks from the property.

Inside the house's garage were several Santa Muerte statues and candles - objects often affiliated with drug or immigrant stash houses. No drugs were seized from the McAllen house late Wednesday morning, police said.

Officers executed other search warrants looking for drugs late Wednesday afternoon, but would not confirm whether any illegal substances had been found.

The off-duty agent had planned to drop his young daughter off with her grandmother, police said.

U.S. Border Patrol spokesman John Lopez confirmed the agent works in the agency's Tucson Sector and that he was off-duty at the time of the shooting.