A Mexican national admitted Tuesday that he slipped out of shackles and attacked a Border Patrol agent.
Salvador Ramirez-Olvera, 39, appeared before U.S. District Judge Rolando Olvera with more than a dozen defendants for a mass re-arraignment and pleaded guilty to assaulting a federal agent on April 1 at the U.S. Border Patrol Brownsville Station in Olmito.
The attack happened when a Border Patrol agent was preparing to transport the man to federal court for his initial appearance.
According to the criminal complaint, Ramirez-Olvera immediately attacked after the agent unlocked the cell door where he was being held.
Ramirez-Olvera admitted to slipping out of his shackles and swinging the restraints toward the agent’s upper body. The agent managed to duck out of the way, but the shackles wrapped around his lower arm, causing bruising, court documents indicate.
Border Patrol agents used a Taser to subdue Ramirez-Olvera, who briefly gained control of the Taser before it fell, the criminal complaint states.
The United States Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Texas said in a press release that Ramirez-Olvera faces up to 20 years in prison for the charge.
Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 4, court records show.
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© 2019 The Brownsville Herald (Brownsville, Texas)
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