A worried 911 call for help from combat vet Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi – jailed in Mexico since March on weapons charges – appears to support his claim he'd crossed the border by mistake.
In the tape obtained by
The Blaze, Tahmooressi tells the 911 operator: “The problem is I crossed the border by accident and I have three guns in my truck and they’re trying to take my guns from me.”
The operator asks, “So you’re in Mexico?”
Tahmooressi replies: “Yeah.”
The 911 operator declares, “There’s nothing I can help you with sir. I do apologize.”
“I’m not sure if I’ve crossed yet,” he responds, explaining he couldn't find a “turn around point.”
Moments later, he was placed under arrest by Mexican police, and now faces six to 21 years in a Mexican prison for carrying his registered AR-15 rifle, .45-caliber pistol and 12-gauge pump shotgun in his car across the border, The Blaze reports.
The 25-year-old soldier's family, U.S. officials and members of Congress
are all lobbying for his safe return.
The vet's mom, Jill Tahmooressi, told the Blaze her son was undergoing treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and had only been in San Diego for 10 days when he took the wrong turn at the San Ysidro checkpoint.
Tahmooressi was originally held in Tijuana’s La Mesa Penitentiary, where on his second day he escaped over a wall but was recaptured. He was then moved to solitary, where he was shackled for nearly 30 days.
Last week he was moved to to a maximum-security prison about 40 miles outside of Tijuana.
“I spoke with him by phone and he is more worried about me and that he’s hungry,” his mother told The Blaze on Tuesday. “I need to stay here and fight for him and I have no one that can go there and visit him or bring him food. I’m terrified for my son but I’m not going to give up the fight.”
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