Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Reforma article
Subject Matter: Extra-judicial killing
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required
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Reporter: Reforma redaction
Two Coahuila police officers were accused of killing a US citizen and a legal resident of the United States at a check point on the Saltillo-Zacatecas highway, state attorneys revealed.
Apparently, the agents tried to cover up the killings by saying that the Americans shot first, the version of events was already denied.
Two members of the Metropolitan Operational Reaction Group (GROM), an elite unit, on October the 28th were in front of a roadblock near Saltillo, when the victims, both Americans, apparently did not stop at the checkpoint.
That same day, the Police issued a statement in which it was stated that the agents " answered the attack, culminating in the death of two probable perpetrators who were travelling aboard the vehicle."
The agents accounts indicated that the men were travelling at excessive speed and tried to avoid the security filter. " Meters later, they fired repeatedly against the GROM officers, who initiated a chase", according to the statement.
However, an official of the State Attorney Generals Office, whose name was not mentioned in accordance with current rules, commented that contradictions in their versions of events caused the investigators to carry out tests in search of traces of gunpowder on the hands of the victims, and no residue was found. In addition, he noted that the two men were simply driving south through Coahuila.
The two uniformed officers are in jail and face charges of intentional homicide. The officials identified the legal resident of the United States as Edgar Valdes Rodriguez, of Kansas City, Missouri. Meanwhile the US State Department identified the US citizen as Demetrius Atkins.
The case is similar to the August 2010 homicide of Joseph Proctor, 32, from New York, by members of the Army, on a road block near his home in the north of Acapulco, Guerrero. On that occasion, the military indicated that the construction employee attempted to assault the soldiers with an AR15 rifle; however the victims relatives rebutted that version and pressed for an investigation to be opened.
Weeks later, the National Defence Ministry reported to the victims mother, Donna Proctor, that three soldiers had been prosecuted for the death of her son.
Subject Matter: Extra-judicial killing
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required
Reporter: Reforma redaction
Two Coahuila police officers were accused of killing a US citizen and a legal resident of the United States at a check point on the Saltillo-Zacatecas highway, state attorneys revealed.
Apparently, the agents tried to cover up the killings by saying that the Americans shot first, the version of events was already denied.
Two members of the Metropolitan Operational Reaction Group (GROM), an elite unit, on October the 28th were in front of a roadblock near Saltillo, when the victims, both Americans, apparently did not stop at the checkpoint.
That same day, the Police issued a statement in which it was stated that the agents " answered the attack, culminating in the death of two probable perpetrators who were travelling aboard the vehicle."
The agents accounts indicated that the men were travelling at excessive speed and tried to avoid the security filter. " Meters later, they fired repeatedly against the GROM officers, who initiated a chase", according to the statement.
However, an official of the State Attorney Generals Office, whose name was not mentioned in accordance with current rules, commented that contradictions in their versions of events caused the investigators to carry out tests in search of traces of gunpowder on the hands of the victims, and no residue was found. In addition, he noted that the two men were simply driving south through Coahuila.
The two uniformed officers are in jail and face charges of intentional homicide. The officials identified the legal resident of the United States as Edgar Valdes Rodriguez, of Kansas City, Missouri. Meanwhile the US State Department identified the US citizen as Demetrius Atkins.
The case is similar to the August 2010 homicide of Joseph Proctor, 32, from New York, by members of the Army, on a road block near his home in the north of Acapulco, Guerrero. On that occasion, the military indicated that the construction employee attempted to assault the soldiers with an AR15 rifle; however the victims relatives rebutted that version and pressed for an investigation to be opened.
Weeks later, the National Defence Ministry reported to the victims mother, Donna Proctor, that three soldiers had been prosecuted for the death of her son.