An American man was killed when a Mexican police officer opened hearth on the automotive he was driving in Ciudad Juárez, throughout the border from El Paso, Texas, the Mexican authorities mentioned on Monday.
A regional prosecutor within the state of Chihuahua, Carlos Manuel Salas, mentioned the taking pictures 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 instantly accelerated of their route, based on Mr. Salas. He mentioned the officer opened hearth as the driving force tried to flee.
Mr. Salas mentioned the officer was in custody and that the taking pictures, which was captured on video by a passenger within the automotive, could 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 title was not launched. In line with Mr. Salas, the car was touring at excessive pace and skidded because it approached the officer, virtually hitting him. The driving force was sporting a hood, he mentioned.
“Why would you speed up?” he requested. “Why would you drive at that pace?”
Mr. Salas argued that if one thing comparable occurred overseas, together with america, the police would additionally probably 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 retailers reported that his title was Julián Alfredo Rodríguez Medina. Information stories mentioned the person and no less than one of many two passengers within the automotive had relations 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 mentioned he had been within the automotive, requested state officers to convey expenses in opposition to the officer.
The person, who recognized himself solely as Jorge A. R., mentioned he and the opposite males within the automotive had been out to get one thing to eat once they had been fired on. He mentioned that they had 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 automotive,” El Diario quoted the person as saying.
Mr. Salas, the prosecutor, mentioned American officers had been notified in regards to the taking pictures in accordance with protocol. A spokesman for america Embassy mentioned in an announcement that officers had been “carefully monitoring native authorities’ investigation into the reported killing.”
The incident is the most recent in a string of violent deaths of People in Mexico.
Final week, a 62-year-old man from Rockford, In poor health., was shot at a freeway checkpoint within the state of Zacatecas that his household mentioned was being run by a prison 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 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 demise 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, and so they mentioned 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 mentioned to be in important situation at a Houston hospital on Monday.
Emiliano Rodríguez Mega contributed reporting.