An American was killed Monday when Mexican police opened fire on a car in Ciudad Juarez, on the border with El Paso, Texas, Mexican officials said.
Carlos Manuel Salas, the regional attorney for the state of Chihuahua, said the shooting happened on Sunday when the officer was escorting an employee of the prosecutor's office to execute a warrant. The two were on foot when a Mustang with New Mexico plates suddenly sped toward them, Mr. Salas said. According to him, the officer opened fire when the driver tried to run away.
Mr. Salas said the officer was in custody and that the shooting, which was captured on video by a passenger in the car, would be investigated by the state attorney general's internal affairs division. At a press conference, Mr. Salas described the incident as “regrettable” and urged the public to refrain from jumping to conclusions until the investigation is complete.
But he offered to defend the unnamed officer. According to Mr. Salas, the vehicle was traveling at a high rate of speed and almost skidded as it approached the officer. According to him, the driver was wearing a hood.
“Why are you speeding up?” – he asked. “Why did you drive so fast?”
Mr. Salas argued that if a similar incident happened in another country, including the United States, the police would likely respond with force.
Authorities have not released the identity of the man killed, describing him only as a nursing assistant from El Paso. But Mexican news agencies informed his name was Julian Alfredo Rodriguez Medina. The man and at least one of the two passengers in the car were family members who lived nearby, according to reports.
in an interview with a news agency Dailya man who identified himself as the driver's brother and said he was in the car asked state officials to press charges against the officer.
The man, who identified himself only as Jorge AR, said he and the other people in the car had gone out to eat when they were shot at. He said that they did not pose any threat and that they were far away from the officer when they opened fire.
“We never threatened him, never shouted at him and never pushed the car,” El Diario quoted the man as saying.
Prosecutor Mr. Salas said that according to protocol, American officials were informed about the shooting. A spokesman for the United States Embassy said in a statement that officials are “closely following the local authorities' investigation into the reported murder.”
The incident is the latest in a series of violent killings of Americans in Mexico.
Last week, it was a 62-year-old man from Rockford was shot at a highway checkpoint He said his family was run by a criminal organization in the state of Zacatecas. A few days ago, two American citizens and one Mexican citizen were shot in an ambush in the state of Durango. The American teenager was seriously injured.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has vowed to curb the violence that has engulfed much of the country. While officials often point to battles between drug-trafficking cartels as the cause of the bloodshed, experts say police-involved violence is not uncommon.
The shooting of the American on Sunday sparked heated debate after a video taken by the passenger went viral on social media. Many called for severe consequences for the detained officer, with some commenters issuing death threats.
On Monday, authorities announced an arrest in the Dec. 27 Durango shooting. They identified the suspect as Iram Uranga Armendáris and that the shooting stemmed from a dispute over a debt related to a land deal.
Mr. Uranga is accused of shooting two people in the head and then two others, including a teenager, in the back as they tried to flee on foot. Jason Peña, 14, of Chicago, was listed in critical condition Monday at a Houston hospital.
Emiliano Rodriguez Mega contributed to the report.