Mexico federal police may be charged over US Embassy vehicle shooting
A Mexican Federal Police Officer mans his mini-gun aboard a Mexican Federal Police Black Hawk helicopter on patrol June 15, 2012 over San Jose del Cabo, Mexico.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – A Mexican judge today ordered 12 federal police officers involved in the shooting of a US Embassy vehicle on Friday held in custody for 40 days, Agence France-Presse reported.
Prosecutors were considering charging the officers with “abuse of authority,” Attorney General Marisela Morales was quoted by Reuters as saying, after they sprayed the four-wheel-drive with bullets and injured two US Embassy employees.
"We are not ruling out any kind of wrongdoing or any line of investigation," Morales told reporters.
"We are asking for them to be detained so that we have the time necessary to conduct an exhaustive investigation."
The two US Embassy employees and a Mexican navy captain were driving to a military installation south of Mexico City when a carload of gunmen started firing on them on a dirt road.
The US Embassy vehicle, which carried diplomatic plates, returned to the highway where another three cars joined the pursuit and opened fire.
The two US Embassy employees were injured in the attack.
The incident was an “extremely serious mistake by the officers, which could be an orchestrated action," Raul Plascencia, head of the National Human Rights Commission, was quoted by AFP saying.
"There is no justification for such an excessive use of force."
The officers will be held in a detention center in Mexico City pending the results of the investigation, the Associated Press reported.
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