WASHINGTON — Federal authorities are investigating a shooting Tuesday along the U.S.-Mexico border that left one Border Patrol agent dead and another wounded.

Three agents, assigned near the Arizona station recently named for a U.S. border agent murdered in the line of duty in 2010, were patrolling on horsebackl in Naco, Ariz., at the time of the early morning shooting, according to a statement issued by the Border Patrol. One agent was not wounded.

None of the agents was immediately identified pending notification of relatives. The wounded agent did not have life-threatening wounds and was airlifted to a hospital, according to Crystal Amarillas, a spokeswoman for the Tucson Sector Border Patrol.

Both agents were assigned to the Brian Terry Station, she said. The station, formerly called the Naco Station, is located in Bisbee, in southeast Arizona about 210 miles from Phoenix.

In September, Naco Station was renamed the Brian Terry Station in honor of the slain Border Patrol agent. Tuesday's shootings came two weeks after the release of a federal inquiry -- into the botched Operation Fast and Furious gun trafficking investigation -- prompted by Terry's 2010 murder. Two weapons found at the scene of Terry's slaying were linked to an undercover federal investigation that allowed about 2,000 guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartel enforcers and other criminals.

Read more