A border patrol agent was murdered by a masked woman and an accomplice along the US-Canada border just hours after Donald Trump began a second term.
Swanton Sector Border Patrol agent David Maland, 44, was killed in a mysterious shooting in Vermont while on duty Monday, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Maland, an Air Force veteran, was fatally shot in the neck after he stopped a small car on Interstate 91, about 20 miles south of the US-Canada border, and the two occupants began firing at him.
A male suspect was also shot dead in the gunfire exchange, and the female suspect was injured before she was arrested, officials said.
The female and male suspects were reportedly already in the radar of authorities and had been looking to buy real estate in Vermont.
They had been staying at the Newport City Inn and Suites for five days; An employee at the hotel told WCAX the female suspect never took off her face mask and was uncooperative with their identification process.
‘I did ask her to lower it so I could check her ID, and she refused to. But we don’t push the issue when it comes to stuff like that. We just do the best we can,’ the employee told the local news outlet.
The employee said she never saw the female suspect’s male accomplice.
Police have not named the suspects but said the man is a German national in the US on a current visa and the woman is an American.
It’s not clear what led to the shooting, and the lack of information combined with federal involvement has led Toronto Sun columnist Brad Hunter to question whether the two suspects were planning a terror attack.
