During the interview, Posada claimed that he had left his five-year-old son at an abandoned migrant camp—these camps were known to be wild, lawless places—near the tiny town of Chamberino, New Mex., some 30 miles up the road. Giorgetti said he would take Posada to get the boy the following morning and asked Posada to call his wife, who was in Mexico, to meet them at a port of entry in El Paso to pick up the child.

Photo Credit: Ann Severtson

Retired Border Patrol Agent Ted Giorgetti receives Purple Cross medal from Chief Patrol Agent Glen W. Schroeder of the Grand Forks Sector.

The next morning, Giorgetti met Posada at the detention facility, checked him for weapons, and drove him back to the camp at Chamberino where the small boy was waiting for him.

Posada took his son into his arms. Giorgetti did not allow him to collect any of his belongings, only the child. On the ride back to El Paso, the little boy sat on the front seat between Giorgetti and his father.

They drove back to El Paso and had almost reached the city when Posada pulled out a large knifeeand plunged it into Giorgetti’s right upper chest. Amazingly, Giorgetti had both the presence of mind and the ability to grab Posada’s hand with his right hand and hold it and the knife in place so Posada could not stab him again. Then, swerving over a curb and onto the bank of the Rio Grande Rriver, he stopped the car.

He carried his service pistol in a belt holster on his right side, the side on which he had been wounded, so he had to change hands, restraining Posada with his left hand, to remove the weapon from the holster. Yet he managed to do it all – change hands, draw his weapon, and hold Posada at bay – while bleeding from his wound. But Posada wasn’t giving up, so Giorgetti pushed the boy down onto the floor of the car and fired five rounds.

It was later learned thataPosada had kept the knife under his mattress when he lived at the camp. He apparently retrieved it when he took his son into his arms.

As Giorgetti explained, “I knew the wound was bad because I was losing a lot of blood. Mr. Posada kept trying to free his hand to stab me again. He was a good bit shorter than I was, so he was able to get his feet up onto the seat and he was kicking me pretty hard. One kick landed on my wound.

“Plus, he was a laborer, so he was pretty strong. I was afraid I’d lose my grasp on his knife arm; so I had no choice but to draw my side arm and shoot. I most sincerely wish the struggle had ended differently.”

Giorgetti recovered from his injuries and transferred to Chicago in 1965 as a criminal investigator with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. He rose to become the Assistant District Director for Investigations at INS in Chicago, retiring from that position in 1982.

It is standard in all law enforcement agencies—state, local, federal—that an inquest be convened when an officer fires his weapon. The judge who presided at Giorgetti’s hearing called him into his chambers afterward and said, "I must congratulate you for what you were able to do: to control an automobile on a busy highway while seriously wounded, fending off a very determined assailant, assuring the safety of a young child, saving your own life and the lives of others." The small boy was returned to his mother in Mexico, as planned.

Giorgetti and his wife, Evelyn, now reside in Knoxville, Iowa. At a ceremony there in June 2004, with friends and family present, Grand Forks Sector Chief Glen W. Schroeder presented him with the Purple Cross. LW

Readers who might wonder why it took so many years after this extraordinary event for Giorgetti to receive the award should know that the Purple Cross Award is barely two years old. The Border Patrol established it in 2002 to recognize agents who have been seriously wounded in the line of duty as a direct result of a hostile act or armed conflict. It seems as though they had Agent Ted Giorgetti in mind when they created the award.