Mexican authorities said Monday that an American man was killed when a Mexican police officer opened fire on a car he was driving in Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas.
Chihuahua state prosecutor Carlos Manuel Salas said the shooting occurred Sunday while a police officer was accompanying a public prosecutor’s office officer serving a warrant. Salas said the two were walking when a Mustang with New Mexico license plates suddenly accelerated in their direction. Police said the driver tried to flee and the officer opened fire.
Salas said the officer is in custody and the shooting, which was recorded on video by a passenger in the car, will be investigated by the state attorney’s internal affairs division. Speaking at a press conference, Salas called the incident “regrettable” and urged the public to refrain from drawing conclusions until the investigation is complete.
However, he appears to have offered to defend the officer, whose name has not been released. Salas said the car was traveling at a high rate of speed and skidded as it approached the officer, nearly colliding with him. The driver was reportedly wearing a hood.
“Why accelerate?” he asked. “Why are you driving at that speed?”
Salas argued that if similar incidents occurred in other countries, including the United States, police would likely respond with force.
Authorities have not released the identity of the slain man, only describing him as a nursing assistant from El Paso. However, Mexican news outlets reported His name was Julián Alfredo Rodriguez Medina. The man and at least one of the two passengers in the car had family members who lived nearby, according to reports.
In an interview with the press El DiarioA man who identified himself as the driver’s brother and who said he was in the car called on state authorities to charge the officers.
The man, who gave his name only as Jorge AR, said he was out shopping for food with other men in the car when shots were fired. He said they posed no threat and that they were at a considerable distance from the officers when the officers opened fire.
“We never threatened him, we never yelled at him, we never skidded the car,” El Diario newspaper quoted the man as saying.
Salas, the prosecutor, said U.S. officials were notified of the shooting as per protocol. A U.S. embassy spokesperson said in a statement that officials are “closely monitoring local authorities’ investigations into the reported killings.”
The incident is the latest in a series of violent deaths of Americans in Mexico.
Last week, a 62-year-old man from Rockford, Illinois, Shot at a highway checkpoint Zacatecas state is run by a criminal organization, family members said. Days earlier, two Americans and a Mexican were shot to death and an American teenager was seriously injured in an ambush in Durango state.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has vowed to curb the violence plaguing much of the country. Officials often point to conflicts between drug cartels as the cause of the bloodshed, but experts say violence involving police is not uncommon.
The shooting death of an American on Sunday sparked intense debate after a video shot by a passenger was posted on social media. Many called for harsh punishment for the detained officers, with some commenters issuing death threats.
On Monday, authorities announced an arrest in connection with the Dec. 27 Durango shooting. Authorities identified the suspect as Ilam Uranga Armendariz and said the shooting stemmed from a dispute over a debt related to a land deal.
Uranga is accused of shooting two of the men in the head and then fatally shooting two others in the back, including a teenage boy, who tried to flee on foot. Jason Peña, 14, a teenager from Chicago, was listed in critical condition Monday at a Houston hospital.
Emiliano Rodriguez Mega Contributed to the report.
