A rash of violent crimes by Border Patrol agents in the Laredo area is nothing new for the agency sometimes dubbed the "green monster." On Monday, five weeks into her official tenure as chief of Border Patrol, Carla Provost traveled from Washington, D.C., to Laredo to discuss a confessed serial killer within her ranks. Juan David Ortiz, a 10-year Border Patrol veteran and supervisor in the region, had admitted he spent September driving sex workers out to rural Webb County and shooting them in the head. He allegedly killed four women before a fifth escaped last Friday and reported him to a state trooper, leading to his arrest and a confession the local DA described as “cold” and emotionless. At a press conference, Provost offered her condolences to the victims’ loved ones. Then she turned, quickly, to another point. “This was one rogue individual,” she said. “I would hate for this to tarnish the great work that our men and women do.” The defense was necessary. In the Laredo sector alone, which hosts some 1,700 of the 20,000 total Border Patrol agents, Ortiz is at least the fourth patrolman to be arrested this year. The other cases include an agent who allegedly murdered his lover and 1-year-old child; another allegedly sexually assaulted a woman after threatening her with deportation. Yet another agent, who hasn’t been identified or arrested, shot and killed an unarmed 20-year-old Guatemalan woman in May. In a question during Monday’s press conference, one reporter charitably dubbed this history “a series of very tragic coincidences.” But the rash of Border Patrol misconduct in Laredo is nothing new for the agency sometimes called the “green monster.” Rather, the nation’s largest law enforcement agency has long been a hotbed of violence and corruption. From 2005 to 2012, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents were arrested 2,170 times for misconduct, such as domestic violence and drunk driving, government inspectors found. CBP, which includes Border Patrol and customs agents, was also the target of 1,187 complaints of excessive force from 2007 to 2012. Since 2004, more than 200 agents have been arrested on corruption-related charges, including at least 13 under Trump. And a 2013 government-commissioned report found that Border Patrol agents regularly stepped in the paths of cars to justify firing at drivers, as well as shooting at rock-throwers, including teenagers on the Mexican side, with the intent to kill. “I would hate for this to tarnish the great work that our men and women do.” According to public statements from former high-level CBP employees, the mess stems largely from the agency’s explosive growth in the feverish years following 9/11. During his second term, George W. Bush doubled the size of Border Patrol. “From an integrity issue, you can’t grow a law enforcement agency that quickly,” Robert Bonner, Bush’s own CBP commissioner, told Politico in 2014. In a court filing, two ex-officials who led the agency’s Office of Internal Affairs wrote that “inadequate” screening had led the agency to hire actual cartel members. They also accused Border Patrol of behaving more like a military agency than a civil police force, as well as abusing its extra-constitutional powers within 100 miles of the border. Since his inauguration, Trump has tried, and so far failed, to replicate Bush’s mistake. Last January, Trump ordered the agency to add 5,000 Border Patrol agents “as soon as is practicable.” CBP has since streamlined its hiring process, including reducing polygraph requirements, and handed a $297 million contract to a private firm to help out. But so far, attrition has outweighed new hires, and the agency has fewer agents than when Trump took office. (Border Patrol jobs are relatively low-paying and based in remote locations; thanks to the economic recovery that began under Obama, would-be applicants might simply have better options.) As Trump has pushed his ill-advised hiring surge, he’s paid no mind to screening for bad apples or weeding out corruption. Instead, he’s coddled and lionized immigration agents. In an August pep rally of sorts for Border Patrol and ICE, Trump — the first presidential candidate ever endorsed by the Border Patrol union — stumbled through a typical proto-fascist homage. He called the gathered officers “heroes,” then bashed immigrant rights activists for supposedly perpetrating an “unprecedented assault” against the agents. Matt A.J./Flickr “That you have to go through what you’re going through, being demeaned by people who have no idea what strength is, is really very sad,” Trump told the officers, whose agencies are still under fire for implementing his disastrous family separations policy. “They just have big, loud mouths and we don’t want to put up with that, and I just want you to know that you’re loved.” In the same vein, Trump, along with Texas politicians including Senator Ted Cruz, leaped last November on reports that a Border Patrol agent had been killed near Van Horn, Texas, perhaps by rock-wielding drug smugglers. No government source had confirmed the account, but that was irrelevant; the story fit too nicely into their narrative of heroic border cops battling violent invaders. (No matter that it’s four times more dangerous to be a local police officer than a Border Patrol agent.) Three months later, the FBI announced it found no evidence of foul play in the patrolman’s death — prompting crickets from Trump et al. On the subject of serial killer Juan David Ortiz, or the agent who killed the unarmed 20-year-old, or any other case within the steady stream of Border Patrol corruption and violence, the silence is equally deafening.<doc-sep>He told her to exit the vehicle along Highway 35 outside Laredo, then shot her multiple times in the head, according to the document. He then went back to the city. While in Laredo, he picked up another person — whom Alaniz described as a transgender woman — and took her five miles from the site of the earlier killing.<doc-sep>(CNN) — Police say they have a confession from a Texas Border Patrol agent they suspect of being a serial killer, but many loose ends and questions remain – chiefly, whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty. It could take as long as 90 days to determine whether prosecutors will pursue capital murder charges against Juan David Ortiz, 35, accused of killing four women in and around the border town of Laredo, Texas, Webb County District Attorney Isidro Alaniz said during a Monday news conference. Another loose end: Are there more victims? Webb County Sheriff Melissa Ramirez, 29, was the first victim linked to Juan David Ortiz, police say. Asked by a reporter if he was certain they had identified all of Ortiz’s victims, Chief Deputy Federico Garza of the Webb County Sheriff’s Office replied, “We’re not confident (of) that, sir.” He added, “We will do historical research everywhere that he has been to see if we have a pattern of victims.” Garza provided additional details about what happened after would-be victim Erika Pena escaped Ortiz, who was holding her at gunpoint, and ran to a state trooper who was fueling up at a nearby gas station – essentially cracking the case for police. Webb County Sheriff Claudine Anne Luera, 42, was killed after growing suspicious of Ortiz, police say. Ortiz, a supervisory Border Patrol agent with access to U.S. Customs and Border Protection intelligence, went home after Pena jumped out of his truck around 9:14 p.m. Friday, and Garza said he was ready for a showdown. He had numerous weapons at his home in north Laredo, the chief deputy said. Pena’s family: ‘She’s still in shock’ “He was loading up all those weapons thinking that the (state troopers were) going to confront him and he was looking at a confrontation,” Garza said. “Thank God that didn’t happen.” Ortiz also posted goodbye messages to his family after Pena escaped, telling his wife and kids he loved them and “Doc Ortiz checks out. Farewell,” said Yanira de Leon, a spokeswoman for the Webb County District Attorney’s Office. Aguero Funeral Home, Crematorium Ricky Janelle Ortiz was one of the victims killed after Erika Pena made her escape, police say. Roughly three hours after Pena’s escape, law enforcement officers were alerted to be on the lookout for Ortiz, and it took another hour before state troopers first encountered him. In that time, he killed two more victims, according to a police affidavit. When the troopers found his truck at a gas station in Laredo, Ortiz had gone inside to use the restroom, Garza said. He had left a gun in his vehicle. Troopers confronted him and one tried to deploy a Taser on Ortiz, but he escaped. From there, he ran to Hotel Ava, formerly a Ramada Inn, and hid in the hotel’s parking garage. When a Webb County SWAT team and state troopers found him around 2:34 a.m. Saturday, Ortiz appeared ready to die, Garza said. “He was trying to commit suicide by cop,” he said. “He was going to try to use his phone to make it look like it was a weapon.” 02:49 - Source: CNN Authorities: Border agent who killed 4 women knew victims Police weren’t fooled and took him into custody, where he gave a verbal confession to killing four women between September 3 and early Saturday, all of whom he picked up in a prostitution hub of Laredo, authorities said. He selected the women, who he knew, based on their vulnerability and “the dislike that he had for this community of people,” Garza said. “At one point, Ortiz was able to gain their trust and viciously shot them,” he said. Garza identified three victims as Melissa Ramirez, 29, Claudine Luera, 42, and Ricky Janelle Ortiz, 28. Janelle Ortiz was a transgender woman, according to police and the funeral home handling her burial. On Wednesday, authorities released the name of the fourth victim: 35-year-old Griselda Alicia Hernandez Cantu, who was also known as Guiselda Alicia Hernandez. She was identified following an autopsy. The discovery of her body on Interstate Highway 35 early Saturday was reported to the Webb County Sheriff’s Office, which is investigating along with the Texas Ranger Division, authorities said.<doc-sep>
Border Patrol agents patrol the US-Mexico border prior to an Easter mass at the fence separating the two countries at Friendship Park in San Ysidro, California on Sunday, April 16, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / Sandy Huffaker (Photo credit should read SANDY HUFFAKER/AFP/Getty Images) (CNN) — A supervisory US Border Patrol agent who authorities are calling a serial killer was arrested Saturday in the deaths of four people after a would-be fifth victim narrowly escaped harm and alerted a police officer. \/Webb County Sheriff's Office/Webb County Sheriff's Office Juan David Ortiz Juan David Ortiz, 35, confessed to killing four people between September 3 and September 15, according to a criminal complaint filed in Webb County, Texas. Ortiz was charged with four murder charges and one unlawful restraint with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to Webb County District Attorney Isidro R. “Chilo” Alaniz. The bodies of four victims were found over the past two weeks, sheriff’s spokesman Eduardo Chapa told CNN. Chapa said investigators are not ruling out the possibility of more victims. An affidavit originally described the victims as three women and one man but the sheriff’s office later said that the victim identified as male was a transgender woman. The victims were shot in the head, according to the affidavit. All of the victims worked as prostitutes, authorities told CNN. “He was profiling certain kinds of victims,” Alaniz said, adding “the suspect was hunting for his victims.” The prosecutor says he feels comfortable describing Ortiz as a serial killer. It was not immediately known whether Ortiz has an attorney. Andrew Meehan, a US Customs and Border Protection spokesperson, said in a statement to CNN that the agency is fully cooperating with investigators. “While it is CBP policy to not comment on the details of an ongoing investigation, criminal action by our employees is not, and will not be tolerated,” his statement read. “Out of respect for the victims’ family and friends, we ask that deference and due process be given to the investigation so that all the facts are brought to light and they can receive the closure they deserve.” Woman able to escape, call police The case broke Friday after a woman narrowly escaped Ortiz’s grasp, the criminal affidavit shows. The woman was in a truck with a man named “David” and the two started talking about one of the prostitutes who had gone missing a week earlier. The man then pulled out a pistol and pointed it at her, and when she tried to flee, he grabbed her shirt to prevent her from leaving the vehicle, the affidavit states. She pulled off her shirt and ran to a nearby gas station, where she found a state trooper. The victim was able to provide a detailed description of Ortiz, including his tattoos, Alaniz said. Authorities found Ortiz at a gas station in Laredo, about 160 miles southwest of San Antonio. He fled the scene on foot and ran to a Ramada Inn, where he was found hiding in the bed of a pickup truck, Alaniz said. Ortiz was read his Miranda Rights and then verbally confessed to killing four people over the last two weeks, the affidavit states. Two of the four killings took place in the hours after the woman was able to escape but before police tracked him down, according to the affidavit. “We have very strong evidence that he is the person who has been killing,” Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar said at a news conference posted on CNN affiliate KGNS’s Facebook page. Ortiz, Cuellar said, spent 10 years as an agent with the US Border Patrol. He also is a US Navy veteran, Alaniz said. Cuellar passed his condolences to the families of the four victims. He said his department, along with other state and federal agencies, had been “working diligently on this case.” CNN’s Amanda Watts, Eric Levenson, AnneClaire Stapleton and Kevin Bohn contributed to this report.