Wounded in stabbing, Border Patrol agent kills attacker, officials say

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The U.S. Border Patrol (logo, right) is a component of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

A U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and killed a migrant who had stabbed him near the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona on Monday night, authorities said.

The agent on foot patrol east of Nogales, a city in Santa Cruz County, confronted and arrested a group of people suspected of being in the country illegally. One of them was armed with a knife and stabbed the agent several times, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection news release.

"The Border Patrol Agent sustained multiple stab wounds, but was able to fire his sidearm and fatally shot the assailant," the agency said.

A CBP helicopter rushed the agent to Nogales Airport where he was transferred to an air ambulance and taken to a hospital in Tucson, officials said.

"[O]ur Agent was released from the hospital and continues to recover," Chief Patrol Agent Roy Villareal of the Tucson Sector tweeted on Tuesday. "Thank you for keeping him in your thoughts for recovery."

FBI agents, U.S. Homeland Security officials, and Santa Cruz County sheriff's deputies responded to the scene of the arrests and shooting. The FBI is leading an investigation into what happened, CBP said.