American Driver Is Fatally Shot by Police Officer in Mexico

An American man was killed when a Mexican police officer opened fire on the car he was driving in Ciudad Juárez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, the Mexican authorities said on Monday.

A regional prosecutor in the state of Chihuahua, Carlos Manuel Salas, said the shooting occurred on Sunday as the officer was accompanying a staff member from the prosecutor’s office, who was serving a warrant. The two were on foot when a Mustang with New Mexico license plates suddenly accelerated in their direction, according to Mr. Salas. He said the officer opened fire as the driver tried to flee.

Mr. Salas said the officer was in custody and that the shooting, which was captured on video by a passenger in the car, would be investigated by the internal affairs division of the state prosecutor’s office. At a news conference, Mr. Salas described the incident as “regrettable” and urged the public to refrain from drawing conclusions until the investigation was complete.

But he appeared to offer a defense of the officer, whose name was not released. According to Mr. Salas, the vehicle was traveling at high speed and skidded as it approached the officer, almost hitting him. The driver was wearing a hood, he said.

“Why would you accelerate?” he asked. “Why would you drive at that speed?”

Mr. Salas argued that if something similar happened in another country, including the United States, the police would also likely respond with force.

The authorities did not identify the man who was killed, describing him only as a nursing assistant from El Paso. But Mexican news outlets reported that his name was Julián Alfredo Rodríguez Medina. News reports said the man and at least one of the two passengers in the car had family members who lived nearby.