An American man was killed when a Mexican police officer opened hearth on the automobile he was driving in Ciudad Juárez, throughout the border from El Paso, Texas, the Mexican authorities stated on Monday.
A regional prosecutor within the state of Chihuahua, Carlos Manuel Salas, stated the capturing occurred on Sunday because the officer was accompanying a workers member from the prosecutor’s workplace, who was serving a warrant. The 2 had been on foot when a Mustang with New Mexico license plates all of a sudden accelerated of their path, based on Mr. Salas. He stated the officer opened hearth as the driving force tried to flee.
Mr. Salas stated the officer was in custody and that the capturing, which was captured on video by a passenger within the automobile, could be investigated by the interior affairs division of the state prosecutor’s workplace. At a information convention, Mr. Salas described the incident as “regrettable” and urged the general public to chorus from drawing conclusions till the investigation was full.
However he appeared to supply a protection of the officer, whose identify was not launched. In keeping with Mr. Salas, the automobile was touring at excessive pace and skidded because it approached the officer, virtually hitting him. The driving force was sporting a hood, he stated.
“Why would you speed up?” he requested. “Why would you drive at that pace?”
Mr. Salas argued that if one thing related occurred overseas, together with the USA, the police would additionally possible reply with power.
The authorities didn’t establish the person who was killed, describing him solely as a nursing assistant from El Paso. However Mexican information shops reported that his identify was Julián Alfredo Rodríguez Medina. Information experiences stated the person and at the very least one of many two passengers within the automobile had members of the family who lived close by.
In an interview with the information outlet El Diario, a person who recognized himself as a brother of the driving force, and who stated he had been within the automobile, requested state officers to deliver fees towards the officer.
The person, who recognized himself solely as Jorge A. R., stated he and the opposite males within the automobile had been out to get one thing to eat after they had been fired on. He stated they’d not posed a risk and that they had been at a substantial distance from the officer when he opened hearth.
“At no time did we make any threats to him, nor did we yell at him, nor did we skid the automobile,” El Diario quoted the person as saying.
Mr. Salas, the prosecutor, stated American officers had been notified in regards to the capturing in accordance with protocol. A spokesman for the USA Embassy stated in a press release that officers had been “intently monitoring native authorities’ investigation into the reported killing.”
The incident is the newest in a string of violent deaths of People in Mexico.
Final week, a 62-year-old man from Rockford, Sick., was shot at a highway checkpoint within the state of Zacatecas that his household stated was being run by a legal group. Days earlier, two Americans and a Mexican nationwide had been shot lifeless within the state of Durango in an ambush that additionally left an American teenager critically injured.
Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has pledged to rein within the violence that has racked a lot of the nation. Whereas officers typically level to fights between drug-trafficking cartels as the reason for the bloodshed, specialists say violence involving the police can be not unusual.
The capturing of the American on Sunday generated heated debate after the video recorded by the passenger was posted on social media. Many known as for harsh penalties for the detained officer, and a few commenters made loss of life threats.
On Monday, the authorities introduced an arrest within the Durango capturing, which occurred on Dec. 27. They recognized the suspect as Iram Uranga Armendáriz, they usually stated the capturing had stemmed from a dispute over a debt associated to a land deal.
Mr. Uranga has been accused of capturing two of the lads within the head, then the 2 others — together with {the teenager} — from behind as they tried to flee on foot. {The teenager}, Jason Peña, a 14-year-old from Chicago, was stated to be in vital situation at a Houston hospital on Monday.
Emiliano Rodríguez Mega contributed reporting.
