‘Threats continue to grow and change’ departing El Paso FBI leader says

Emmerson Buie Jr. was scheduled to depart the El Paso Division of the FBI for his new post in Chicago prior to the August mass shootings at an El Paso Walmart and the streets of Odessa and Midland.

“Unfortunately in today’s world, it’s not a sometimes a matter of if or maybe … and you have to prepare,” Buie said about mass shootings in an interview Tuesday, Oct. 1, his final day of work in El Paso.

Buie had been special agent in charge of FBI El Paso division, which stretches across 17 counties in West Texas with satellite offices in Midland and Alpine, since June 2017.

“Unfortunately, we had to suffer through the ordeal on Aug. 3 with the Walmart shooting in our division and followed up by the Odessa incident as well,” Buie said. “That was two incidents within a span of a month that hit our division.”

On Aug. 3, a 21-year-old white man from suburban Dallas, who allegedly told police that he drove to El Paso to target Mexicans, is accused of killing 22 people in a shooting at the Cielo Vista Walmart.