Texas detention warden and brother arrested after two migrants are shot, one fatally, while walking on road

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A jail warden and his twin brother have been arrested for allegedly shooting one migrant dead and wounding another.

Sixty-year-old Michael Sheppard, who worked as a warden at West Texas Detention Center, and his twin brother Mark Sheppard have been charged with manslaughter. During the Tuesday evening incident, the twins allegedly opened fire on a group of at least four migrants walking along a roadway near Sierra Blanca.

The group had stopped to drink water when they heard a car approach and tried to hide. An affidavit from one of the migrants obtained by The New York Times states that the brothers allegedly yelled profanities at the group and told them to “come out”.

The migrants eventually continued walking after hearing what they thought was the Sheppards’ vehicle leaving, only to be struck by gunfire. A man was fatally shot in the head and a woman was shot in the stomach and later transported to a hospital in El Paso, the Texas Department of Public Safety said.

The Sheppards have denied screaming at the group and stated in an affidavit that they left the scene because they believed they had shot wild animals, according to the Times.

On Thursday, authorities located a vehicle linked to the investigation, which was assigned to Michael Sheppard by LaSalle Corrections — the company that operates the West Texas Detention Center — and conducted the arrests in Hudspeth County, the Texas Tribune reported. He has since been fired from the private detention centre.

The FBI, Border Patrol and Homeland Security are the agencies leading the investigation after the Hudspeth County Sheriff’s Office notified them of the events.

According to the affidavits obtained by the Times, the group of migrants stopped at a water tank around 7pm on 27 September. They attempted to hide when they heard the Sheppards’ vehicle.

The brothers reportedly said that they intended to hunt ducks and thought they had found javelinas when Michael Sheppard leaned on the truck and opened fire.

The West Texas Detention Center said in a statement to ABC News that Michael Sheppard was fired “due to an off-duty incident unrelated to his employment.”

In 2018, The Intercept reported that Michael Sheppard, who then oversaw immigration and customs enforcement, was accused of verbal and physical abuse by a group of African migrants and asylum-seekers at the detention centre.

The victims claimed that during the week they spent in West Texas, they were pepper-sprayed, beaten and sexually abused by wardens who responded to Sheppard. They alleged that Michael Sheppard often told them, “Shut your Black [expletive] up” and once punched a man in the face and kicked his ribs.

The allegations were escalated to the FBI, but it is unclear if criminal charges were brought in the investigation or whether anyone was held accountable. An ICE spokesperson told The Intercept that the agency had stopped using West Texas for immigration detention in 2019.