Ted Poe: “In west Texas, where the rattlesnake rules the hard, rugged land is Edwards County. It is a sparsely populated place…”

“In west Texas, where the rattlesnake rules the hard, rugged land is Edwards County. It is a sparsely populated place because not much grows on that dusty soil. Local landmarks include Devil's Sinkhole, a massive bat cave and a place called Bullhead. This land used to be the home of the fierce Lipan Apache Indians, dating all the way back to the 1600s. This county, near the Texas-Mexico border, is the size of Delaware. On patrol of this massive place of over 2,000 square miles are only three deputy sheriffs. One of them is Gilmer Hernandez. Recently, Deputy Hernandez was on patrol about midnight, alone. He came across a truck that had run a red light in the small quiet town of Rocksprings, Texas. He pulled the vehicle over and approached it. He noticed numerous people lying on the floor of the truck. One thing led to another, and the vehicle sped off. Hernandez says the driver turned around and tried to run him down, so he fired numerous times at the vehicle. He shot out the tires. So the vehicle stopped and the occupants, they fled into the darkness. All except one, who was lying down on the floor, hiding in the back, wounded by a ricochet. Deputy Hernandez immediately called the sheriff, Donald Letsinger. He immediately showed up, along with the Texas Rangers, to do routine follow-up work. But then the Federal Government shows up and takes over the investigation.”