2 killed in rollover crash during Border Patrol chase south of Tucson

4 others injured as pickup rolled near Amado

Posted Mar 9, 2022

Paul Ingram
TucsonSentinel.com

Paul Ingram/TucsonSentinel.com

Two people were killed and four were seriously injured when a pickup truck pursued by U.S. Border Patrol agents crashed and rolled over on the frontage road parallel to Interstate 19 on Monday night, officials said.

Around 11 p.m., a Border Patrol agent attempted to pull over a truck running northbound on the East Frontage Road near Amado, Ariz., said John Mennell, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Amado — a small town just south of Green Valley, about 34 miles south of Tucson — is just past the Border Patrol checkpoint that sits on the northbound lanes of I-19. There is a smaller BP checkpoint on Arivaca Road, the main road that runs through Amado from the west.

During the chase, the truck ran off the frontage road, rolled, and smashed into several trees, ejecting people from the bed, said a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

The driver and one passenger were pronounced dead at the scene, and four other passengers were transported to the hospital with serious to life-threatening injuries, DPS said.

Authorities did not release the names of the people killed and injured in the crash, nor did they provide details about why the BP agent attempted to halt the truck.

Mennell said that personnel from the DPS and CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility are investigating, and that more information will be shared when it becomes available.

Last August, a Border Patrol chase led to a fiery crash north of Tucson that killed three people, and injured eight more.

During that incident, a Jeep Liberty bypassed a checkpoint on State Route 86 near Three Points, Ariz., and continued for nearly 20 miles through Tucson before switching to Interstate 10. Border Patrol agents chased the vehicle for nearly an hour until they were near Picacho Peak where agents deployed a device called a "grappler" to stop the vehicle.

However, the driver lost control, CBP said, and the Jeep crossed the median, struck a semi-tractor trailer heading in the opposite direction. The vehicle caught fire and agents pulled several people from the wreckage.

Two people were killed in the crash and were declared dead at the scene, and one other man died from his injuries after he was flown to Banner University Medical Center.