Two years ago to the day of December 14, 2012 Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered during a BORTAC operation that was tracking down illegal Mexican bandits in Arizona. Unknown to Terry at the time was the fact that the weapon he would be killed with was supervised leaving America, crossing our border into Mexico and ending up in the hands of members of Mexico’s drug cartels. The weapon used to kill Terry and found at the scene of his murder came from the Justice Department’s Operation Fast and Furious. A day before the two year anniversary of Terry’s death, his family has filed a $25 million wrongful death lawsuit against Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) officials.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday, was filed one day before a deadline for filing a wrongful death claim in federal court and the family claims that it should have known that Operation Fast and Furious created a risk to law enforcement authorities.
The lawsuit was made publicly available on Friday.
Newsmax reports,
The family also sued a federal prosecutor who had previously handled the case but is no longer on it, and the owner of the gun store where two rifles found in the aftermath of the firefight were bought.
The family alleges the ATF officials and federal prosecutor created a risk to law enforcement officers such as Terry, and that the firearms agents should have known their actions would lead to injuries and deaths to civilians and police officers in America and Mexico.
The family also alleged that firearms agents and the prosecutor sought to cover up the link between Terry’s death and the botched “Fast and Furious” investigation.
The 65-page complaint claims, “ATF’s failures were not only negligent but in violation of ATF’s own policies and procedures.”
They are also suing the Lone Wolf Trading Company who sold “hundreds of weapons” to various straw purchases.
According to Fox News,
The claim alleges that “but for defendants’ negligent and illegal sales … Brian Terry would not have been murdered in the Arizona desert on Dec. 14, 2010.”
The family is seeking a jury trial.
The government now has six months to respond or the Terry family will file a suit for the $25 million.
Some bit of justice has already been done in incidents regarding Fast and Furious, but hardly any of the “big fish” have yet to be fried.
Hopefully with the impending lawsuit the Terry family may put enough pressure on Congress to get to the bottom of things in the scandal and their son’s death.
Terry was honored earlier this year as a Border Patrol station in Bisbee, AZ was officially renamed in his honor.
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