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A Brownsville man said he only has photographs to remember a friend who worked as a federal agent and was killed by gunmen in Mexico.

U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jaime Zapata was killed in the line of duty in San Luis Potosi on Tuesday.

Zapata’s body is in Houston and is expected to be returned to Brownsville for his funeral.

One of Zapata’s closest friends spoke off camera but said he considered the fallen ICE agent like a member of his own family.

“He was like a brother to me, like a younger brother to me,” the man said. “He grew up with my brother at my house and saw him from knee-high till he became what he is today or what he was.”

Zapata was 34 years old at the time of his death.

His friend said he could not believe the news when he told by telephone on Tuesday.

“My reaction to the call… was stop messing around with me… you're lying..,” the man said.

But it was no joke.

The governor of San Luis Potosi attributes the attack to Mexican drug cartel gunmen.

Zapata’s fellow agent Victor Avila survived the attack and has been released from a hospital in Houston.

A Mexican doctor told reporters that Zapata died after being shot at least five times in the abdomen.

The fallen ICE agent’s casket was transported from San Luis Potosi to Houston on Wednesday.

"I wish our government would take more actions to make sure these guys that are out there doing things that normal people like you and I won't do to make them more secure,” Zapata’s friend said.

Although now many have come to know about Zapata, his friend said he knew another side of him - the everyday Jaime Zapata.

"Everyday, Jaime was always worried about everybody making sure everybody was doing ok very caring person,” he said.

Now that all he has left are the memories made but he said are they good ones.

"From him going to India with me, us taking trips to Vegas to Acapulco to random outings at night,” he said.

Now this long time friend says his duty is to be with the Zapata family.

“How can an experience be with a mother that lost her son a father that lost his son a brother that lost a brother it's not the best thing to see and it was pretty tough,” the friend said.