“The Most Dangerous Game,” written in 1924, is a famous and widely read short story. It’s about a man who hunts people for sport (details here). It apparently wasn’t the inspiration for “Hunger Games,” whose author says she drew on Greek mythology for her theme of humans hunting humans.
It’s hard to tell what inspired Mike and Mark Sheppard, two Texas brothers currently residing in the El Paso jail. They went hunting together on Tuesday, September 27, 2022; the Texas Tribune describes what happened here.
Briefly, they were traveling in a pickup truck on a West Texas road looking for javelinas (wild pigs) to shoot, which are considered a pest animal in Texas cattle country. In early evening they came upon a group of four migrants walking on the road, who hid behind a water tank when they approached. The survivors claim the Sheppards yelled at them to come out; they deny yelling anything.
In any case, some hunting occurred, and a male migrant was killed by a head shot and a female migrant was shot in the stomach. The hunters drove off; U.S. Border Patrol agents and sheriff’s deputies rescued the wounded female victim.
The pickup truck belonged to LaSalle Corrections, a private prison company based in Louisiana. It was assigned to Mike Sheppard, who since 2015 has been the warden at a nearby LaSalle facility called the West Texas Detention Center, although he isn’t anymore, which “houses male and female detainees who are in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement” (details here).
The Texas Tribune says this facility while under Mike Sheppard’s management has been the subject of complaints about living conditions and mistreatment of detainees. Prior to 2018, an ICE oversight office cited it for “lack of training on how to use nonlethal weapons,” “health services deficiencies,” inmates using “plastic bags for toilets,” and “a rattlesnake found in their sleeping quarters.”
There also were “allegations of violence against immigrants.” A 2018 report by a Texas law school (read it here) found that African immigrants held in the facility were “grievously abused.” They were subjected to “beatings, racial taunts and sexual abuse at the hands of the center’s officials who were under the leadership of Mike Sheppard at the time.”
Officers under his supervision also “used racist epithets and engaged in hate crimes.” And Mike Sheppard himself “was accused of punching a man in the face and kicking him while he was handcuffed on the ground in solitary confinement.”
So I guess nobody should be real surprised if, as alleged, he spent his day off taking his brother hunting human game animals. For now, they’re only charged with manslaughter. And, of course, they’re presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law. Meanwhile, LaSalle Corrections fired him.
Photos: A javelina (left) doesn’t look like migrants (right), so it’s hard to believe the hunters didn’t know they were shooting at people
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