YUMA, Ariz. — Government officials, family members and Yuma residents gathered Friday to pay their final respects to two U.S. Border Patrol agents who died when a train struck their sport utility vehicle west of Gila Bend.
Agents Hector Clark, 39, and Eduardo Rojas Jr., 34, were buried at Yuma's Desert Lawn Cemetery after the memorial service at the Yuma Civic Center. Both men died early May 12 while they were helping other agents capture suspected drug traffickers in western Arizona.
Grieving family members said they are receiving overwhelming support from the Border Patrol community in Yuma.
"The support has been tremendous," said Greg Quintana, Rojas' brother-in-law, in an interview with Phoenix television station KNXV.
Authorities said the early morning crash happened as another group of agents less than a mile south of the train tracks were pursuing eight illegal immigrants carrying marijuana bales on their backs.
Rojas and Clark were trying to cut off the smugglers as they moved north. The agents' SUV was struck at a railroad crossing in a rural farming area near the town of Gila Bend, about 85 miles southwest of Phoenix, said Border Patrol spokesman Kenneth Quillen.
The six illegal immigrants were eventually arrested.
Investigators have declined to speculate on what might have caused the deadly crash, but they plan to examine the wreckage for any signs of mechanical problems, a Maricopa County sheriff's spokesman said.
The westbound Union Pacific train with 75 cars was moving at about 62 mph when it hit the SUV. Investigators said it pushed the vehicle a half-mile to a mile down the tracks.
The distance the SUV was pushed indicates it was moving as slow as 3 mph when the collision occurred, said Detective Aaron Douglas, a spokesman for the Maricopa County sheriff's office.
The Border Patrol SUV was unmarked but equipped with police lights. Before the collision, a train conductor and engineer spotted the vehicle driving on an access road alongside the tracks. They sounded a horn a quarter-mile before the crossing, officials said.