SIERRA BLANCA — The shooting looms over this West Texas town like a storm cloud in the spring.
“We don’t want to talk about it because we don’t want to be defined by it, but this really happened,” said Bill Addington, a resident of Sierra Blanca, about 90 miles southeast of El Paso. “We have to face the facts, because there will be more shootings.”
Addington was referring to the killing of a man and wounding of a woman last September at a reservoir known as Fivemile tank, just miles from the Texas-Mexico border. Both victims were migrants, part of a larger group that had crossed the border.
The two men accused in the shooting are twin brothers, Michael and Mark Sheppard. They told investigators they thought they were firing from their truck at wild animals, perhaps ducks, birds or javelinas.
Michael Sheppard, the man who pulled the trigger, was the warden at the nearby West Texas Detention Center. His brother Mark Sheppard worked for the sheriff in a civilian job.
The Sheppard twins were accused of manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon, released on bond and returned to Florida, their home state, according to a complaint affidavit and their lawyers. They have not been indicted, according to their lawyers, the Hudspeth County Clerk and District Attorney’s office.
“It was nothing more than a tragic accident,” said Brent Mayr, an attorney for Michael Sheppard, adding his “client feels remorse and sympathy for the harm that was caused, and that it’s never been in his nature to want to take the life of a human being.”
Lawyer Richard Esper said his client, Mark Sheppard, “did nothing wrong. Period.” He called the shooting “a hunting accident.”
Was it an accident? “Of course not. They saw us,” said Berenice Casillas Castillo, a migrant who was wounded in the shooting, speaking in a phone interview. She was hit by one of the bullets.
She and 11 other migrants at the scene later told investigators the men yelled profanity at them in broken Spanish before the shooting and drove off without rendering aid, according to Casillas.
“No one, no one deserves this,” she said. “No one deserves to be greeted like this.”
Two women in the group helped Casillas and they tried to walk toward town to get medical help, according to Casillas. She said they were so afraid the men would return, “every time we heard a car, we crouched down so they wouldn’t see us.
Casillas said she “almost bled to death” from a bullet wound under her rib cage.
Border tensions
Tensions along the border are high, with concern about violence against migrants. The number of migrants arriving at the border had been increasing leading up to the end of Title 42, a pandemic-era health order that allowed Border Patrol agents to to return tens of thousands of migrants, including those seeking asylum, to Mexico.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has made border enforcement a top priority of the first special session that began Monday. Abbott ordered lawmakers to pass: “Legislation solely for the purpose of increasing or enhancing the penalties” for people who engage in human smuggling or operate stash houses.
It’s the latest attempt by the state to assume a role in border enforcement and immigration control, despite multiple court rulings that only the federal government has that authority.
Abbott’s $4 billion border mission known as Operation Lone Star includes the deployment of up to 10,000 National Guard troops to the border, “enhanced safety inspections” of commercial trucks arriving from Mexico, slowing down cargo shipments, and fundraising to build a new wall along the Texas border.
“President Biden’s open border policies are going to cause a catastrophic disaster in the United States,” Abbott said on May 8, as he deployed the “Texas Tactical Border Force” to assist federal authorities with the aftermath of the lifting of the pandemic rule.
Surveillance cameras
Last September, investigators used Border Patrol surveillance cameras in the area to locate the truck at the scene of the shooting at the watering hold in Hudspeth County. But Michael Sheppard refused to answer questions, according to the Texas Rangers.
In an affidavit taken on Sept. 29 by a Texas Ranger, two days after the shooting, Mark Sheppard initially denied he was at the location but later told investigators he and his twin Michael were out on a Tuesday afternoon looking for ducks or birds and then changed it to javelinas, wild pigs that roam the area.
The affidavit noted that the shooting occurred at 7 p.m., though Mark Sheppard said he and his brother had been hunting that afternoon before attending a water board meeting. Officials said the water meeting began at 5 p.m.
Mark Sheppard told Texas Rangers he was using binoculars when Michael got out of the truck, placed the shotgun on the hood and fired two rounds, according to the affidavit. The men then drove away.
Some residents like Addington are concerned that without accountability, there could be other incidents. “Life just can’t go on, like if nothing happened,” he said.
El Paso District Attorney Bill Hicks said the investigation was still ongoing. "Our standing position is that we do not comment on pending litigation.”
Sierra Blanca is located in Hudspeth County, just off Interstate 10. Most drivers zoom by without stopping. It has no traffic lights and a declining population of about 800 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The town is surrounded by striking landscape of desert, mountains, also a shooting range and large detention center.
Many are reluctant to talk openly for fear of reprisal. After some convincing, waitress Alejandra Luna spoke.
Luna said she often served Mark Sheppard breakfast. “He was like, ‘You people,’ meaning I guess Mexican people, ‘That y’all come over here and want everything free.' she said. "Well, first I was, like, I wasn’t born in Mexico. I’m a U.S. citizen. Secondly, I have always worked. That comment is out of place.’"
Residents like Luna call on politicians to be careful with their rhetoric. Some Republican leaders in Texas including Abbott refer to the growing number of migrants as an “invasion.”
Hudspeth County Commissioner Mike Sheets agrees with the governor. “I call this an invasion and a war. I really believe we should take Fort Bliss and put them on the border,” he said, referring to soldiers at the military base in nearby El Paso. "There are too many people getting away.”
But he also questioned how the killing happened and lamented that a life was taken. “To me it was senseless,” he said. “Young kid … should never die over something like that.”
Residents say the shooting has shaken their close-knit community, where people know their neighbors. Some newcomers regret their decision to relocate here. Sara Villatoro and her husband moved their family from Dallas to rural West Texas looking for a quiet life in the country, a place to own some land. They opened a small café.
“We thought this was a tranquil place,” she said. “But everyone lives with a prayer on their lips.” She said she was “surprised and afraid” after learning the man who shot the migrants was the warden.
Villatoro said she worried her family was at risk so they stopped venturing out to the countryside. “We no longer go out there on our own,” she said. “Because of our skin color, they might say we just crossed the border.”
Villatoro recently closed the restaurant and her family left town. The building now sits empty like so many others in Sierra Blanca.
