Agent Terry was shot and killed while in the line of duty on Dec. 14, 2010, near Rio Rico, Arizona.
Agent Terry’s mother, Josephine Terry, was given a chance to board the vessel bearing her son’s name. “It felt good,” Ms. Terry told reporter Evrod Cassimy. “I thought about my son all the time I was on there because he liked going on the water all the time.”
“He wouldn’t believe it,” said Mrs. Terry. “Like he used to say, go big or go home! He got himself a boat now! I wish he was sitting next to me.”
“It was truly humbling to be honest with you,” said US Border Patrol Chief Mike Fisher. “I’ve been on border patrol for 26 years, and it’s one of the higher honors in the institution or organization.”
The vessel will now patrol the northern border.
Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, one of the murderers of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, pled guilty in October 2012 to first degree murder in federal court in Tucson in exchange for prosecutors promising not to seek the death penalty.
Osorio-Arellanes, Jesus Rosario Favela-Astorga, Ivan Soto-Barraza, Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes and Lionel Portillo-Meza were charged with crimes including first degree murder, second degree murder, conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery, attempted interference with commerce by robbery, use and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence, assault on a federal officer and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.
Osorio-Arellanes, Jesus Rosario Favela-Astorga, Ivan Soto-Barraza, Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes and Lionel Portillo-Meza killed Agent Terry with guns from the U.S. government’s failed gun running scandal, Fast and Furious, during a firefight with the Border Patrol agents.
Osorio-Arellanes and the others had illegally entered the United States from Mexico for the purpose of robbing drug traffickers of their contraband. In addition to the murder of Agent Terry, the five defendants assaulted Border Patrol Agents William Castano, Gabriel Fragoza and Timothy Keller, who were with Agent Terry during the firefight.