Mexico police kill migrant accused of shooting at them
Police in the northern Mexico border state of Coahuila shot a Salvadoran migrant accused of drawing a pistol and opening fire on officers, prosecutors said Thursday.
A migrant shelter in the Coahuila city of Saltillo said the Salvadoran man had been waiting with other migrants late Wednesday to hop a freight train to the U.S. border.
The Casa Del Migrante Saltillo shelter said the group of about 10 migrants had stayed at the shelter before heading to the train tracks, and suggested they were victims of an overzealous raid by state and federal forces.
The shelter said in a statement the migrants hid a 2-year-old girl during the raid because “they assumed the agents of the Coahuila prosecutors’ office were shooting to kill.”
But the prosecutor’s office gave a different story.
“At the train tracks, four men verbally attacked police, and one of them took out a firearm and fired shots, while other people fled on foot,” the office said in a statement. “The officers returned fire and thus the attacker fell dead.”
The shelter also said authorities separated a 2-year-old girl from her mother during the raid.
The federal government issued a statement Thursday saying neither federal police nor immigration agents were involved in the raid Wednesday.
The Coahuila state government said in a separate statement that the man’s death is under investigation. It said the girl was safe and in the custody of child welfare officials.
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