NOGALES, Ariz. -- It was shortly after 11 p.m. one night in December when an elite unit of the U.S. Border Patrol, making its way through the inky darkness of Peck Canyon, ran into a pack of heavily armed men.
A gunfight broke out, and when it was over, Agent Brian Terry, a three-year veteran of the force, was dead. Four Mexicans were taken into custody, one of them shot in the abdomen and back. By daybreak, a massive sweep was under way in search of a fifth suspect who had disappeared into the night.
The agent's death happened in the wake of a wave of robberies, rapes and assaults -- most unreported, police say, because they are directed at illegal migrants and drug runners.
Yet more than a month after Terry's death, prosecutors still have filed no homicide charges against the unidentified men in custody, nor have they caught the fifth suspect, who may have been the triggerman.
After the massive law enforcement response to the Jan. 8 shootings of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others, there is frustration here that Terry's death has not taken the same priority.
