An American man was killed when Mexican police opened fire on his car as he was driving in Ciudad Juárez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, Mexican authorities said Monday.
Chihuahua District Attorney Carlos Manuel Salas said the shooting occurred Sunday while the officer was accompanying a prosecutor’s office officer who was executing a warrant. According to Mr. Salas, the two men were walking when a Mustang with New Mexico license plates suddenly accelerated in their direction. He said the officer opened fire as the driver tried to flee.
Salas said the officer was in custody and the shooting, which was captured on video by a passenger in the car, would be investigated by the state Attorney General’s Office of Internal Affairs. Prime Minister Salas called the incident “regrettable” at a press conference and urged the public not to draw any conclusions until the investigation is complete.
But he appeared to defend the officer, whose name has not been released. According to Mr. Salas, the vehicle was traveling at a high rate of speed and as it approached the officer, it skidded and almost struck the officer. “The driver was wearing a hood,” he said.
“Why are you trying to accelerate?” he asked. “Why would you drive at that speed?”
Mr. Salas argued that if something similar were to happen in other countries, including the United States, the police would likely respond with force.
Authorities did not identify the slain man, describing him only as a nursing assistant from El Paso. However, Mexican media outlets reported that his name was Julián Alfredo Rodríguez Medina. News reports say the man and at least one of the two passengers in the car had family who lived nearby.
In an interview with news outlet El Diario, a man who identified himself as the driver’s brother and said he was a passenger in the car asked state authorities to charge the officer.
The man, who identified himself only as Jorge AR, said he and other men in the car were shot when they went out to buy food. He said they posed no threat and that he was a reasonable distance away from the officers when he opened fire.
“We did not make any threats to him, we did not shout at him and we did not skid the car,” El Diario quoted the man as saying.
Mr. Salas, the prosecutor, said U.S. officials were notified of the shooting in accordance with protocol. “Authorities are closely monitoring local authorities’ investigation into the reported killings,” a U.S. embassy spokeswoman said in a statement.
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, was shot at a highway checkpoint in Zacatecas state that his family said was run by a criminal gang. A few days ago, in Durango state, two American citizens and a Mexican national were ambushed and shot dead, and an American teenager was also seriously injured.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has pledged to quell the violence sweeping the country. Officials often point to fighting between drug trafficking cartels as the cause of the bloodshed, but experts say violence involving police is not uncommon.
The shooting of an American on Sunday sparked heated debate after a video taken by a passenger was posted on social media. Many people called for harsh punishment for the detained officers, and some commentators issued death threats.
On Monday, authorities announced an arrest in the Durango shooting that occurred Dec. 27. They identified the suspect as Iram Uranga Armendariz and said the shooting stemmed from a dispute over a debt related to a land deal.
Mr Uranga is accused of shooting two men in the head as they tried to flee on foot, and then shooting two others, including a teenager, in the back. Jason Peña, a 14-year-old from Chicago, was reported to be in critical condition at a Houston hospital on Monday.
Emiliano Rodriguez Mega contributed to the report.
