EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A federal judge has sentenced a Nogales, Arizona, resident to 32 months in a federal prison for pointing a loaded gun at a Border Patrol agent outside his home.
Tuesday’s sentencing of Erik Alberto Beal, 28, on a charge of assault on a federal officer with a deadly and dangerous weapon also comes with 36 months of supervised release and forfeiture of a Sig Sauer model P250 .45-caliber pistol.
Prosecutors dropped a second assault charge as part of a plea bargain.
The charges stemmed from an April 11, 2024, incident involving two Border Patrol agents chasing a migrant in the vicinity of Beal’s residence. The agents split up and were searching for the migrant when someone opened the side door of the residence and a pit bull came out toward one of the agents.
Court records show the agent only identified as M.M. drew his service firearm at the pit bull and began to shout. It was then that Beal came out of the residence, walked to his pickup, retrieved the Sig Sauer, chambered a bullet and pointed it at Agent M.M.
Records show a standoff ensued between the armed agent and Beal until the second Border Patrol agent arrived and pointed his gun at the civilian. Beal stopped pointing the Sig Sauer at the agent and was taken into custody.
“As I pointed the pistol at Agent M.M., I ordered him to holster his weapon. In response, Agent M.M. aimed his firearm at me and ordered me to put my firearm down,” Beal said in an affidavit. “I finally unloaded my firearm and returned the firearm to my truck. I knew that Agent M.M. was a U.S. Border Patrol agent engaged in his duties …”
Beal told investigators his residence is “very close to the border” between Nogales and Nogales, Mexico, and that migrants have passed through his property in the past.
There was no word on what happened to the pit bull.
Records show Erik Alberto Beal in 2016 pleaded guilty to a charge of aiding and abetting illegal aliens.
That conviction stemmed from a March 24, 2016, incident in which Border Patrol agents saw a man come of a mobile home they suspected was a migrant stash house and drive to a convenience store. The agents obtained a search warrant, entered the mobile home, apprehended eight migrants and arrested Beal.
The migrants allegedly identified Beal as the person who picked them up after they were smuggled into the United States illegally and brought them to the mobile home.
Court records show Beal pleaded guilty to the aiding and abetting charge and was sentenced to 180 days in prison.