NACO, Ariz. -- The Mexican government has publicly confirmed that it arrested two suspects in connection with the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Nicholas Ivie. Meanwhile, family members have stepped forward to talk about the slain agent.
Outside a tiny church in southern Arizona, agents and family held a vigil for the murdered agent. A choir sings quietly to one side of the gathering as the sun sets over the border nearby.
Seth Polley is vicar of a nearby church in Bisbee. He led the group in prayer.
"And we are deeply grateful to him and we pray to his family that they can endure and be sustained by God's grace. Let us pray," Pollie said.
Ivie was shot and killed early Tuesday morning when he was out with two other agents checking on a tripped ground sensor.
The rugged mountains that separate the two countries here are used by drug traffickers controlled by the Sinaloa cartel. But officials have not identified any suspects. Nor have they discussed a motive for the killing.
Law-enforcement sources here say they would be surprised if a cartel was responsible for the killing because of the attention the murder instantly brought to this area.
The Mexican embassy said Thursday that Mexican authorities had arrested two suspects in Ivie's killing. The FBI, meanwhile, has declined to discuss the case.
Joel Ivie is also a Border Patrol agent. His brother was Nick Ivie. They worked out of the same station here in Naco, Ariz. Joel said his brother once carried a pregnant woman he found out in the desert with no shoes a mile and a half to safety.
"I never knew that because Nick wasn't the kind of man to boast about the things that he did. That was just a part of what he did a part of his normal life," Joel Ivie said.
A service is planned for Monday in Sierra Vista.
