AUSTIN – (WBAP/KLIF) The Texas Military Department continues the search for Texas Army National Guard Specialist Bishop E. Evans. A comprehensive interagency search began on Friday morning when SPC Evans went missing following his selfless efforts to rescue two migrants who appeared to be drowning while crossing the river from Mexico into the U.S.
On Saturday, a press release from the Texas Rangers said investigators believe that the two migrants were trafficking narcotics.
“Initial reports from the Texas Rangers have determined that the two migrants were involved in illicit transnational narcotics trafficking. They remain in the custody of US Customs and Border Patrol.”
The Texas Military Department did not provide further details or respond to a request for comment related to the two migrants.
Governor Greg Abbott tweeted Sunday that “Evans is a hero who risked his life in service to Texas & America.”
With the Texas Rangers as the lead for the continued investigation, the Texas Military Department, Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Parks and Wildlife, and the Border Patrol have tirelessly worked through search and rescue teams in an effort to locate SPC Evans. Dive teams were forced to halt their operations yesterday evening as the river’s current continued at an increased pace, making dive operations very challenging. Search and rescue operations began again early Sunday morning, with the addition of three airboats from the Texas Department of Public Safety.
SPC Evans, 22, a field artilleryman from Arlington, Texas is assigned to A Battery, 4-133 Field Artillery Regiment in New Braunfels Texas, and joined the Texas Army National Guard in May 2019. He returned in the fall of 2020 from mobilization to Operation Spartan Shield in Kuwait. During this mobilization, his dedication, talents, and tactical prowess led his leadership to regularly assign him to operations in Iraq in support of Special Operations Forces for short periods of time, while then rotating back into Kuwait
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