GUNFIRE FROM JUAREZ USUALLY HEARD, NOT SEEN

EL PASO -- The gunfire from Juarez that struck El Paso City Hall on
Tuesday was unusual.

But it is not uncommon for U.S. Border Patrol agents to hear the sound
of gunshots from Mexico.

Border Patrol agents posted along the Rio Grande have reported hearing
shots as the violence has boiled in Juarez, though officials said it
is uncommon for bullets to cross the border and strike in the U.S.

"Typically, agents hear gunshots south of the border but as far as an
incident like this (City Hall shooting) -- no," said Agent Ramiro
Cordero, a spokesman for the Border Patrol.

Cordero said agents are vigilant, especially because of the drug
violence in Juarez that has killed more than 5,000 people since 2008.

El Paso police said they believe the seven shots that hit City Hall
were rounds from a shooting in which a Mexican federal police officer
was killed on a Juarez street near the Rio Grande.

For residents near the border, the sound of guns can be
surreal.

David Poe lives in San Elizario about a half-mile from the Rio Grande
after moving to the area from Boston to take a government job.

"It was a Tuesday evening a month and a half ago," Poe recalled. "I
stepped out onto my patio. I heard a repetition. I can't prove it was
gunfire. But it was in such a successive rate that it couldn't have
been anything else."

Poe said it sounded like repetitive gunshots were being fired in
Mexico.

"I have been in El Paso since February," he said. "The concept of what
is going on in Juarez is somewhat new to me. It just added to my
reality. Wow, someone may have just lost their life."

The City Hall shooting is not without historical precedent.

"It's interesting because I think there are some interesting parallels
between the Mexican Revolution and El Paso's involvement and interest
in what was happening in Juarez at that time," city Rep. Beto O'Rourke
said.

About 100 years ago during the Mexican Revolution, El Paso buildings
and El Pasoans were hit by shots fired from Juarez. The brick walls on
the south side of the old laundry building on South Santa Fe Street
still have the pockmarks of revolutionary bullets.

In 1919, things got so bad that 3,600 U.S. troops rolled into Juarez
to stop the fighting and help protect U.S. lives after three soldiers
were hit by stray bullets, according to El Paso Times archives.