- Title: MEXICO: Police kill one civilian during shootout at checkpoint in Nuevo Laredo
- Date: 5th June 2010
- Summary: NUEVO LAREDO, TAMAULIPAS, MEXICO (JUNE 3, 2010) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) GENERAL VIEW OF AREA WHERE SHOOTOUT TOOK PLACE VARIOUS OF POLICEMEN GUARDING AREA / ARRESTED MEN LYING ON GROUND VARIOUS OF RELATIVES OF ARRESTED MEN ARRIVING AT SCENE AND CONFRONTING POLICEMEN SUV WITH BULLET HOLES AND ARRESTED MEN ON GROUND VICTIM'S WIFE ARRIVING ESCORTED BY SOLDIER (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) VICTIM'S WIFE, OLGA LIDIA ESTRADA, SAYING: "He's my husband, my husband and my brother-in-law was injured, he was in the SUV, he's injured. When I arrived he (husband) lifted his head and they (police) did not want to help him." ARRESTED MAN LYING ON GROUND POLICEMAN GUARDING AREA ARRESTED MAN ON STREET VARIOUS OF POLICEMEN AND ONLOOKERS (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) RELATIVE OF ARRESTED MEN, MARIA GUZMAN, SAYING: "They (policemen) told us nothing had happened, that they had only chased them and hadn't opened fire but the SUV is full of bullet holes." AMBULANCE SOLDIERS FORCING ARRESTED MEN TO GET ON KNEES VARIOUS OF MILITARY VEHICLES WITH SOLDIERS LEAVING
- Embargoed: 20th June 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Mexico
- Country: Mexico
- Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
- Reuters ID: LVA8DE0JG6UWCDC3WZLDBSIIBRKX
- Story Text: At least one civilian dead after police open fire on vehicle that did not stop at check point.
A man was killed, another was injured and four people were arrested after police chased and shot at a vehicle that failed to stop at a checkpoint in a northern Mexico border city on Thursday (June 03).
Six men who were travelling in an SUV with tinted windows in Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas, had been drinking at a near-by house and were on their way to buy more beer, according to relatives at the scene.
The army and police cordoned off the area before the curious gaze of onlookers.
Olga Lidia Estrada, who arrived at the scene of the shootout said her 23-year-old husband called Anthony Alan Guerra Prado had been killed. He was sitting in the back seat of the SUV which was full of bullet holes.
"He's my husband, my husband and my brother-in-law was injured, he was in the SUV, he's injured. When I arrived he (husband) lifted his head and they (police) did not want to help him."
The arrested men were forced to lie down on the ground.
A relative of the arrested men, Maria Guzman, said police officers had told them nothing had happened.
"They (policemen) told us nothing had happened, that they had only chased them and hadn't opened fire but the SUV is full of bullet holes."
Police have yet to release an official statement on the events. Eyewitnesses at the scene said no weapons were found inside the SUV.
Drug violence is raging across Mexico and about 23,000 people have died in the fight among cartels and with Mexican security forces since President Felipe Calderon launched his army-led crackdown on drug gangs in late 2006.
Nuevo Laredo and the surrounding state of Tamaulipas have seen a surge in drug-related violence since the start of the year as the Gulf cartel fights its former armed wing, the Zetas, for smuggling routes into the United States.
The violence is scaring off tourists and worries Washington, which is giving anti-drug aid, equipment and police training to Mexico. Some investors have frozen investment in factories in cities on the U.S. border, especially in Ciudad Juarez, the most deadly spot in the drug war. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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