EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Chihuahua state authorities are investigating the shooting death of a young adult presumed to be an American citizen allegedly at the hands of a police officer Sunday in Juarez, Mexico.
The shooting in the middle of a street in the Melchor Ocampo neighborhood near Downtown Juarez was captured on security camera video. The footage shows the blue Ford Mustang coming up on the officer, who’s on foot, make a sharp left inches away from his body, then start to reverse.
A second video taken by one of the occupants of the blue Mustang that was the target of the officer’s bullets is also circulating on social media. The panicked voice of a passenger inside the vehicle can be heard yelling, “No! No! No! No!” in that second video. Prior to that, the young men had been listening to music and conversing in Spanish.
The vehicle with yellow-and-red New Mexico license plates comes to a stop after it strikes a parked SUV.
“We are looking for these videos that have been published and are circulating on social media,” Chihuahua Deputy Attorney General Jesus Manuel Salas said at a news conference Monday morning. “It is very regrettable that this happened.”
Salas said two men inside the car, both the one who died as well as the one who sustained unspecified injuries, are believed to be American citizens, he said. The third occupant who shot the video is in custody.
The state prosecutor said the shooting is being reviewed by the state police’s Internal Affairs unit. He added he did not want to “re-victimize” the young men but questioned the aggressive driving in front of the officer.
“Why would you accelerate, why would you move forth at that speed? I don’t know the answer. That is part of the investigation,” Salas said. “If this happened in another country, in the United States, if you move forth at that speed […] the police will react,” he said. “It is a regrettable case and the instruction we have from the attorney general is that we follow the law without question.”
Salas said the officer was accompanying a state prosecutor serving a warrant in the neighborhood. “In many of the warrants, the citations these prosecutors serve, they are accompanied by municipal police, state agencies or the National Guard. We live a complicated environment in this city and the prosecutors face many risks,” he said.
ProVideo in Juarez, Mexico, contributed to this report.