Three Americans were fatally shot over the weekend in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico’s notorious murder capital and a focal point of its brutal drug violence, US officials said on Monday.
US Department of State spokesman Philip Crowley said it was not clear if the three were killed in deliberate attacks or if they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“We offer our condolences to the families of the victims,” he said.
Crowley said Washington is “providing all possible assistance” to Mexico in the investigation of the murders.
“Two [US] citizens were fatally shot early Sunday, close to the Zaragoza International Bridge” linking Ciudad Juarez to El Paso, Texas, Crowley said.
“And in a separate incident, another US citizen was fatally wounded in Ciudad Juarez itself,” he said.
Meanwhile, authorities in Mexico said the three were two brothers and a woman who were killed while driving toward the bridge straddling the border. Mexican officials said a 14-year-old boy was also wounded in the incident.
According to Mexican news reports, the men were aged 23 and 15 and the woman was the wife of the older brother.
ON THE WAY HOME
Officials in the state of Chihuahua said the shooting took place about 1km from the bridge, by gunmen with assault weapons who fired off more than 50 rounds, the office said in a statement.
“The three bodies were recovered with help from US authorities to be taken to El Paso,” the statement added.
The murder victims were of Hispanic origin, the office said without mentioning whether the 14-year-old boy wounded in the action was also a US citizen.
CONSULAR MURDER
The fatal shootings come as Mexico announced that its military arrested a fourth suspect in the March 13 murder of a US consular employee and her husband, a crime that also took place in Ciudad Juarez.
The Mexican Army arrested Miguel Angel Nevarez, alias “Glasses,” on Saturday night, for his suspected role in the killing of an American working at the consulate and her husband and the husband of another staff member, the ministry said in a statement.
Mexico in September extradited one of three suspects already arrested for the triple murder, which officials blame on the Los Aztecas gang — hitmen for the powerful Juarez drug cartel.
The US consulate in Ciudad Juarez was briefly closed after the killings in March and again at the end of July due to an unspecified threat.
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