Texas Border Business
By Roberto Hugo González
July 7, 2025- A man was shot and killed by federal agents Monday morning after opening fire on a federal building near McAllen International Airport, according to McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodríguez. The suspect, identified as 27-year-old Ryan Lewis Mosqueda from Michigan, targeted the building that houses U.S. Border Patrol operations, prompting an immediate and coordinated law enforcement response.
“He engaged the suspect who had opened fire upon that building and upon those agents who were in the building,” said Chief Rodriguez during a press briefing. Border Patrol agents returned fire and “subsequently neutralized — that is, killed — the person that had opened fire.”
The incident began shortly before 6:00 a.m. when authorities received reports of gunfire outside the federal building. Officers responded quickly, including McAllen Police Department Officer Ismael Garcia, a 10-year veteran of the force. Garcia was injured during the incident. “He got hit in the knee,” said Chief Rodriguez. “We don’t know exactly whether that’s a piece of a round, a full round — we don’t know. He’s going to be fine. He’s going through a recovery process and treatment at this point at a local hospital.”
Officials confirmed that no other officers or agents sustained gunshot injuries. “Clearly they were all impacted by virtue of the trauma involved with someone shooting at them,” the Chief noted, “but I do not know of another officer, federal officer that is, that took a bullet round or anything like that.”
The shooter was found with a utility vest and armed with multiple weapons, including what appeared to be an assault rifle. “If you ask me, does it look like an AR-15, I would say yes,” said the Chief, although he stopped short of definitively identifying the weapon. Authorities said the suspect was also in possession of “much more ammunition and other weaponry,” both on his person and in his vehicle.
The suspect’s car, a white vehicle with Michigan license plates, was parked near the scene and drew suspicion due to its unknown origin. Law enforcement treated the vehicle as a potential threat. “There were many, many backpacks in there. We have found much ammo and other weaponry in the vehicle, but we have found no explosives,” the Chief said. Bomb response units were called in as a precaution.
Authorities noted that something had been spray-painted on the vehicle. “There’s some message we don’t understand on a vehicle — may be some Latin words on it,” the Chief explained. “I do not know if they’re necessarily related to the reason it’s here or have any relationship at all with regard to why this happened.”
The FBI is now leading the investigation, given the federal nature of the targets involved. “This particular incident involves both a federal assault on a federal police officer and an assault on a federal building,” the Chief stated. “The rest of us are in an assist mode to that investigation.”
Mosqueda had reportedly been declared missing from a residence in Weslaco, Texas, around 4:00 a.m., just over an hour before the attack. “We do not know the linkage to the Weslaco address and what the relationship is there,” the Chief said. “But we know he was reported missing about 4:00 a.m. this morning, and then an hour and a few minutes later, he was at that particular location opening fire.”
As of Monday afternoon, officials had not established a motive. “We do not know, ma’am,” the Chief said when asked about possible reasons behind the shooting. “It’s awful early for us to say. We’re not anywhere near at that point to figure that out yet.” Asked whether the attack might be classified as terrorism, the Chief responded, “That’s subject to the investigation. We just don’t know enough.”
The shooter was acting alone, according to current findings, though authorities are not ruling out the possibility of accomplices. “We do not know at this point in time whether there are any other associates with him or other persons involved. That is part of the investigation.”
While McAllen police initially shut down traffic around the scene and temporarily suspended airport operations, the area was cleared by late morning.
Despite the severity of the situation, officials expressed relief that more lives were not lost. “We’re really, really thankful to God and everybody else that our officer is fine, number one,” said the Chief. “That no federal officers were shattered or wounded in this particular incident. And that’s the reason why we don’t have more of an expanded crime scene or a number of victims in this particular case.”
The investigation remains active, and authorities continue to process evidence, including the suspect’s weapons, vehicle contents, and any digital or physical records that may point to motive or affiliations. This article will update when information is available.
