A retired FBI agent has been named as the individual who lost his life in a shooting at an El Paso high school
A retired FBI agent has been identified by his relatives as the man who died during an incident with a high school police officer in El Paso, Texas.
Julio Cordero, who was 56 years old, was a father of four and a distinguished former federal agent who faced mental health issues since his retirement from the FBI, according to his brother, Marco Cordero, speaking to Channel 9-KTSM.
The FBI’s El Paso Division confirmed that Cordero worked as a special agent from 1996 until 2019. “We are deeply saddened by the loss of one of our former agents,” stated FBI spokeswoman Jeanette Harper.
Cordero was the leading agent in Operation Poisoned Pawns, a significant public corruption investigation in 2007 when the FBI executed a raid on the El Paso County Courthouse, leading to numerous convictions, including those of three ex-county judges, commissioners, school board members, and various business individuals.
“He was a highly respected law enforcement officer in the community and made a significant impact,” Marco Cordero expressed to KTSM, noting that his brother’s mental health started to decline in 2014 after a traumatic incident in which a suicidal individual jumped in front of his vehicle, reliving painful memories from a past accident that took his sister’s life in 1993.
During an encounter prior to 6 a.m. on Thursday, an officer with the El Paso Independent School District shot Cordero, who was allegedly breaking windows at Franklin High School where his family stated he had a son in his senior year.
The identity of the person who was shot has not been publicly disclosed by the school district or the El Paso Police Department, and details regarding the incident have also not been shared.
The El Paso Police Department and Texas Rangers are investigating the shooting, as is customary for all incidents involving police fatalities. The school district is also carrying out its own administrative review of the situation.