TWO hunters who shot each other on a remote Texas ranch lied to police, and said they were attacked by immigrants who had entered the country illegally, a court has heard.

Presidio County Sheriff Danny Dominguez told a local television station KOSA that a grand jury indicted Michael Bryant and Walker Daugherty, 26, on charges of using deadly conduct by discharging firearms in the direction of others.

The charges stem from an incident on January 6 where police responded to call about a shooting on a ranch near Candelaria, close to the border of Mexico.

Police found Daugherty and another man in the hunting party, Edwin Roberts, 59, with gunshot wounds.

The men were part of a group of hunters and told authorities they were attacked by people who had illegally crossed the nearby border and tried to steal an RV the hunters were using.

An investigation found that Daugherty actually shot Roberts and Bryant shot Daugherty.

According to The independent, investigators believe that Daugherty became “paranoid” that illegal immigrants were inside a vehicle with Roberts and his wife, so he attempted to get inside without saying anything. This prompted Roberts to shoot at the door of the vehicle.

Daugherty then ran back to his cabin to grab his gun and to get backup from Bryant, and together they opened fire on the truck.

The hunters’ false claim became fodder for a Facebook post by Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, who wrote the attack was another reason why a wall must be built to secure the Texas border to halt “violent criminals and members of drug cartels coming in.”

Sheriff Dominguez at the time suggested the agriculture commissioner “needs to do his job and stick to that, and I’ll do my job.”

Miller — who became infamous in the US during last year’s election campaign when he called Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton a “c***” in a Tweet — attracted enormous attention for his social media posts, and his comments about the West Texas shooting were shared more than 6,500 times before being deleted.

Daugherty’s fiancee, who was at the ranch on the night of the shooting, told CBS 7 she could not comment on the case until it was completed, but said the couple had had multiple encounters with undocumented immigrants in the past month. She claimed they had had hundreds of dollars worth of supplies stolen by them from the ranch.

Authorities say about 30 law enforcement officers searched the perimeter of the ranch where the hunters were staying, didn’t find signs of people approaching the camp that night and that investigators found no evidence whatsoever of “cross-border violence.”

Dominguez said he had never seen violence from illegal immigrants like the alleged incident before. He said he was sceptical of the story from the beginning.

By then, however, the rumours had already spread. The Washington Post reports that rancher and family friend in Arizona released a statement based on the Daugherty family’s account, describing the incident as a brutal, calculated attack by “illegal aliens.”

“The attack has the family concerned that the attack was not just an attempt to rob the property,” the statement read, according to the Albuquerque Journal. “They believe the assailants intended to kill all the party. The attackers were strategically placed around the lodge, and the men were fired upon from different areas.”

Soon after a family friend set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds for Daugherty’s medical bills, as he is uninsured. The page stated that Daugherty and his group were involved in a shootout with some illegal immigrants that were trying to steal his RV with his clients still inside it.

The appeal raised over $US26,000 (more than $33,865) before it was shut down.

Daughtery and Bryant have both been indicted on third-degree felony charges, punishable by up to five years in prison.

As Charlotte England at The independent points out, it’s ironic that it was actually paranoia about border security, not a lack of border security, that appears to have landed the two men in hospital.

With AP