An American man was killed when a Mexican police officer opened fireplace 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 taking pictures occurred on Sunday because the officer was accompanying a employees 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 abruptly accelerated of their route, in accordance with Mr. Salas. He stated the officer opened fireplace as the motive force tried to flee.
Mr. Salas stated the officer was in custody and that the taking pictures, which was captured on video by a passenger within the automobile, can be investigated by the inner 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 line with Mr. Salas, the car was touring at excessive pace and skidded because it approached the officer, nearly 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 comparable occurred abroad, together with the US, the police would additionally probably reply with drive.
The authorities didn’t determine the person who was killed, describing him solely as a nursing assistant from El Paso. However Mexican information retailers reported that his identify was Julián Alfredo Rodríguez Medina. Information experiences stated the person and not less than 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 motive force, and who stated he had been within the automobile, requested state officers to carry costs 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 once 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 fireplace.
“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 taking pictures in accordance with protocol. A spokesman for the US Embassy stated in an announcement 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 Individuals in Mexico.
Final week, a 62-year-old man from Rockford, Unwell., was shot at a freeway 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 usually level to fights between drug-trafficking cartels as the reason for the bloodshed, consultants say violence involving the police can also be not unusual.
The taking pictures 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 taking pictures, which occurred on Dec. 27. They recognized the suspect as Iram Uranga Armendáriz, they usually stated the taking pictures had stemmed from a dispute over a debt associated to a land deal.
Mr. Uranga has been accused of taking pictures two of the boys 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 crucial situation at a Houston hospital on Monday.
Emiliano Rodríguez Mega contributed reporting.
