SPECIAL REPORT: THE DEVELOPER ⚡ NEWS BREAK
We’re wrapping up our live coverage for today. We’ll be back on Wednesday with more. Here is a summary of the day’s developments:
UPDATE (10:00 p.m. ET): Records Detail Prior Smuggling Case, No Bystander Video In Arizona Shooting
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (January 27, 2026) — Newly reviewed court records and law-enforcement statements paint a clearer—and uglier—picture of who was shot near Arivaca and why federal agents were so interested in his truck. Authorities now say 34-year-old Arizona resident Patrick Gary Schlegel was allegedly in the middle of a human smuggling operation when Border Patrol tried to stop his vehicle near Arivaca, a community of about 500 people on a corridor agents routinely describe as a busy route for drug smugglers and migrants.
During Tuesday’s attempted arrest, investigators say Schlegel shot at a manned CBP helicopter and at agents on the ground, prompting agents to return fire and hit him; he was taken to a regional level-one trauma center, underwent surgery, and is recovering, still in federal custody. Court records show Schlegel’s history goes well beyond today’s gunfight: in 2023, he was charged with transporting more than a dozen people for financial gain, allegedly hiding them under a tarp in a truck, crashing while fleeing, then throwing rocks at a government helicopter as he tried to escape; agents later found two pistols in that truck. In December 2025, he walked out of Dismas Charities in Tucson on a pass for counseling and never came back, triggering an escape warrant tied to a prior human smuggling and firearms conviction.
Unlike Minneapolis—where bystanders have filmed multiple immigration-agent shootings from every angle—this confrontation played out in sparsely populated desert with no bystander video so far, leaving the FBI, Border Patrol’s internal affairs office, and Pima County’s critical-incident team to tell the story with whatever surveillance and air footage they can scrape together.
Sheriff Chris Nanos, a Democrat who has publicly said his office will not enforce Trump’s federal immigration crackdown and will focus on local crime instead, is stressing that his department’s role in this shooting grows out of “long standing relationships” on the border and a promise of transparency. For now, he says the Border Patrol agent appears to have “acted lawfully” based on the facts they have, but the use-of-force investigation is still in motion—and it’s playing out against the backdrop of a Border Patrol that fired weapons in 8 incidents in the 12 months through September 2025, 14 the year before that, and 13 the year before, plus three immigration-agent shootings this month in Minnesota, two of them fatal.
UPDATE (7:45 p.m. ET): FBI Names Suspect, Says He Fired on CBP Helicopter
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (January 27, 2026) — At a late-afternoon press conference, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos and FBI officials identified the wounded man as Patrick Gary Schlegel, 34, a U.S. citizen from Sahuarita, Arizona, with a prior federal alien-smuggling conviction and an active 2025 U.S. Marshals warrant for escape. Investigators say Border Patrol agents were reacting to an “active alien smuggling matter” when they first encountered Schlegel’s vehicle with other occupants earlier in the morning; everyone fled, including the truck.
Later, a Border Patrol agent recognized the same vehicle near milepost 15 on Arivaca Highway, pulled it over, and found Schlegel alone in the driver’s seat. He ran into the desert on foot, the agent followed, and officials now allege that during the chase Schlegel used a handgun—believed to be a .45—to fire at a manned CBP helicopter before agents returned fire and shot him. CBP agents rendered aid on the ground, and Schlegel was flown to a local hospital, where he underwent surgery and is now described as serious but stable and in federal custody.
The FBI says it has asked for a federal criminal complaint charging Schlegel with assault on a federal officer, alien smuggling, and felon in possession of a firearm, while Pima County’s regional critical-incident team is handling the use-of-force investigation into the Border Patrol agent’s actions. Nanos stressed that his office has full access to federal evidence, including video from air assets, and that they will eventually present their findings to the county attorney—adding that, based on what they know tonight, they believe the agent acted lawfully, but the investigation is still underway and state charges remain on the table for both the suspect and, if the evidence supports it, the shooter.
*This is a developing story. This article will be updated as more information becomes available.
UPDATE (6:00 p.m. ET): Federal “Use-of-Force” Probe, 4 p.m. Presser Planned
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (January 27, 2026) — The Pima County Sheriff’s Department now says the FBI has asked it to take the lead on the use-of-force investigation into the Border Patrol agent who opened fire near Arivaca. The sheriff’s office is stressing that this kind of local probe is “standard” whenever a federal agency is involved in a shooting in the county and is asking the public to “remain patient and understanding” while it plays out.
The FBI, for its part, says it is investigating an “alleged assault on a federal officer” near Arivaca, about ten miles from the border, but has not explained how that alleged assault connects to the shooting that left one person in critical condition. An FBI spokesperson confirmed the bureau will appear alongside the sheriff’s department at a 4 p.m. MT press conference on the incident, but did not clarify anything beyond that.
Local fire officials added one more key detail: the wounded person—still in critical condition—was in custody when they were transferred to a medical helicopter and flown to a regional trauma center.
*This is a developing story. This article will be updated as more information becomes available.
Border Patrol Shooting in Rural Arizona Leaves One Critically Wounded as Immigration Toll Climbs
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (January 27, 2026) — A person is in critical condition after an incident involving U.S. Border Patrol near the U.S.–Mexico border in southern Arizona on Tuesday morning, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.
Medical crews reached the scene at about 7:37 a.m. in Arivaca, an unincorporated community in Pima County, according to a news release from the Santa Rita Fire District. The person, who has not been publicly identified, was taken by helicopter to a regional trauma center and was listed in critical condition when first responders arrived.
Authorities did not release any information about a suspect or what prompted the shooting.
In a written statement attributed to Sheriff Chris Nanos, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department confirmed that Border Patrol was involved and said the office was working “in coordination with the FBI Phoenix-Tucson office and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.” Beyond that, local officials offered no account of how the encounter began or why shots were fired, and by Tuesday afternoon the basic circumstances of the case remained unclear.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Developer.
Tuesday’s shooting lands on top of a grim January record in Minneapolis, where three separate incidents involving federal immigration officers have intensified scrutiny of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and the way Border Patrol and ICE are executing those missions on American streets. ICU nurse Alex Pretti was shot and killed by Border Patrol. Renée Good was fatally shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis was shot by ICE and survived.
*This is a developing story. This article will be updated as more information becomes available.
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Because this shooting was not recorded we will never know what happened. But who would believe ice or border patrol now knowing they lie at every turn.
Again!!!!!!