U.S. girl shot dead by police during cartel chase in Mexico
The state prosecutor's office said that Aranza, a 7-year-old who was born in the United States, was hit in the head by police gunfire.
Key points
- A 7-year-old American girl was killed by police gunfire in Matamoros, Mexico, on October 29.
- Her mother said the family stopped and her husband told officers they were civilians with children.
- The Tamaulipas attorney general said officers were responding to an attack from the ground.
Mexican police shot and killed a 7-year-old American girl when officers fired on her family's vehicle from a helicopter during a drug enforcement operation, the Tamaulipas state prosecutor's office confirmed Friday. The shooting happened in Matamoros, a city across the border from Brownsville, Texas, on October 29, the same day police captured a local criminal and gunmen set up street blockades in the area.
The prosecutor's office said the girl, Aranza, who was born in the United States, was hit in the head by police gunfire.
What the family said
The girl's mother told Mexican media she was in a pickup truck with her husband and five children when they noticed a police helicopter following them. She said the family stopped the vehicle and her husband got out to tell officers they were civilians with children, but they were fired at anyway.
an attack they allegedly came under
— Tamaulipas Attorney General Jesus Govea
Police account and arrest
Tamaulipas Attorney General Jesus Govea told Mexico's Milenio network that the officers were responding to "an attack they allegedly came under" from the ground during the roadblocks. Govea said the officers who opened fire remain free, but that "significant progress is being made in the course of the investigation."
KABB-TV in San Antonio reported that the violence followed the arrest of Alfredo Cárdenas Rodríguez, described as an alleged high-ranking member of the Ciclones faction of the Gulf Cartel. Mexico's Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch said on social media that Cárdenas Rodríguez, also known as "Axel," was linked to homicides, kidnappings, extortion and trafficking of drugs, weapons and people into the United States. The U.S. Consulate in Matamoros said it issued a shelter-in-place order for employees after the operation.
