PRESIDIO COUNTY — The two men airlifted from a remote Presidio County ranch for treatment of severe gunshot wounds last week were either shot by each other or other members of their own hunting party, not attackers from Mexico.
That’s the conclusion the Presidio County Sheriff’s Office has reached after a weeklong investigation. Regardless, the incident triggered a viral fake news story shared across the internet, including by Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, who has previously been criticized for sharing untrue stories.
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller
Evidence recovered from the scene of last Friday’s shooting near Candelaria indicate the severe gunshot wounds inflicted on Walker Daugherty and Edwin Roberts were caused by friendly fire, the sheriff’s office said in a statement Friday.
“There were no bullet casings or projectiles from weapons other than those belonging to the individuals hunting on the ranch nor in the RV belonging to the hunting party.”
New Mexico hunting guide Walker Daugherty, 26, and Florida chiropractor Dr. Edwin Roberts, 59, were airlifted from the Circle Dug Ranch last Friday after the Sheriff’s Office responded a shooting incident. Daugherty and Roberts were both taken to El Paso for treatment.
The Sheriff’s Office continues to deny rumors spread since last week that the incident was caused by attackers who entered the Rio Grande-adjacent ranch from Mexico.
A GoFundMe.com page set up by a family friend and statement from a neighbor of Daughtery’s after the incident led to widespread internet rumors and ultimately headlines claiming the two men were attacked by Mexicans trying to steal a recreational vehicle in which Roberts and his wife were sleeping.
“There is no evidence that suggests ‘cross-border violence,’” the sheriff’s office statement said. The sheriff’s office was assisted in responding to the incident by U.S. Border Patrol agents, who searched the area with thermal imaging technology from the air and found no sign of anyone on the ranch other than the hunting party.
“A thorough search of the perimeter of the ranch house by U.S. Border Patrol involving an approximate 30 agents, including expert trackers, concluded that there was no sign of human pedestrian traffic leading to or from the ranch that night,” the Sheriff’s Office statement said.
