EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The family of retired FBI agent Julio Cordero is grappling with the fallout from his death after an encounter with an El Paso Independent School District police officer early Thursday morning, August 22, at Franklin High School.
Cordero, 56, was killed at school around 5:45 a.m. after an EPISD police officer caught him vandalizing the school where his eldest son is a senior.
Several days after his death, his family says they have still not been formally notified of his death by the investigating authorities, nor have they received any information on when they can begin planning his funeral.
Cordero was born into a family of eight working-class children, who taught their children the importance of education. After all eight graduated from Bel Air High School, three Cordero boys—Pete, Marco and Julio—joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the mid-1990s.
During his decorated career as an FBI agent, Cordero won numerous awards, including the Attorney General's Distinguished Service Award for leading the investigation into Operation Poisoned Pawns. The investigation resulted in more than 40 convictions of prominent El Paso residents in a web of massive corruption. The convictions included former County Judge Anthony Cobos, local attorney Luther Jones, and other notable El Paso business leaders and elected officials.
As Cordero's career progressed, his personal life began to unravel. In 2014, a suicidal man jumped in front of Cordero's car and died. Marco says Julio began having nightmares.
Then memories of a 1993 car crash that killed Julio's sister came flooding back. While Julio only escaped with a concussion, the crash that killed his sister and her boyfriend also began to haunt him. He began to feel guilty about their deaths, and it seeped into his relationships.
“He was a very respected law enforcement officer in the city. He made a big difference. For those who don't know Poisoned Pawns, read about it. That was his baby,” Marco said. “He had a great career. A career that a lot of us would like to have, but no profession should be more important than your family.”
After retiring from the FBI in 2018, Julio’s mental health continued to deteriorate. Despite efforts from family members to help him, Julio would often go days without sleeping and experience symptoms of paranoia and PTSD. He began taking medication and improved, but then stopped taking the medication and the cycle began again.
“Beautiful people get sick. He was very well cared for and we, as an extended family, did everything we could to protect him. Other than living his life, there was nothing more we could have done,” says Marco Cordero.
While Marco says Julio was not a violent man and never owned a gun after leaving the FBI, he had a few run-ins over the last two years that stemmed from his deteriorating mental state. He had started breaking windows. Often, once he had broken them and recovered from his mental state, he would return to the businesses to apologize and offer to pay for the damage.
As a family of law enforcement officers, the Corderos now see the world from a different perspective.
“When he got scared, he froze. It was like you were talking to him, but he couldn't hear you. He can't process information, so it's very possible that they're giving him orders and he's not doing what he's supposed to do, and part of that is fear, and the other part is PTSD kicking in,” Marco Cordero said. “I don't know, right? All of a sudden I'm on the other side of the fence, and now I'm not so quick to say, 'Do what the police tell you to do.'”
The family questions why less-lethal force wasn’t used and says they hope the EPISD police department will release the bodycam and surveillance footage to family friends in law enforcement so they can personally review the incident leading up to his death to determine if the use of force was justified.
In the meantime, they choose to focus on the wonderful and kind man Julio was, his incredible career as a police officer, and his greatest legacy: his four children.
If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, call or text 988 to connect with a trained counselor 24/7.
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