An official with the U.S. Consulate in Mexico has been shot and wounded after a gunman stalked and shot him outside a shopping mall parking garage. The unidentified victim had been working at the consulate in Guadalajara, the home of the New Generation Jalisco Cartel according to the New York Times, but the Mexican government and U.S. embassy aren’t pointing fingers in that direction just yet:
The State Department official, who was not identified, was in stable condition after the shooting, a spokeswoman from the United States Embassy in Mexico City said on Saturday. Neither embassy officials nor the Mexican attorney general’s office commented on a possible motive…
Security footage released by the consulate on its Facebook page shows the gunman, dressed in a loosefitting dark blue T-shirt and pants and wearing glasses, waiting on the sidewalk adjacent to the exit ramp of an underground parking lot in an upscale neighborhood. A white car pulls up to the barrier gate, waits for the arm to lift and drives off. Then, as the consular official’s black car pulls up, the gunman raises his arm, fires and runs away.
The FBI is offering a $20,000 reward to anyone with information leading to the identification and arrest of the gunman seen in the video. Images and security video are plastered all over the Facebook page for the U.S. Consulate, showing the individual in question dressed in blue and seemingly stalking the consulate official, seen in red shorts in the parking garage and driving the black car in the clip of the actual incident.
This is far from the first time U.S. officials have faced violence in Mexico, mostly stemming from incidents with the numerous drug cartels. According to the New York Times, some are even the result of mistaken identity:
That was the case in 2010 of a consulate employee in the border city of Ciudad Juárez, her husband and the husband of another employee who were killed. The white S.U.V. that the employee and her husband were driving in was mistaken for the vehicle of a gang leader whose killing was ordered by a rival.
The Times highlights several over cases, but it is still unclear if this was a personal attack or the results of more gang violence. They also point out that the New Generation Jalisco Cartel have rarely carried out violence on regular citizens, typically limiting attacks to the police and other government forces.
(Via The New York Times)