PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Coahuila – Mexican authorities are investigating the fatal shooting of a two-year-old girl at the hands of local police. The police officers appear to have mistaken her family’s vehicle for another carrying cartel gunmen. Two police officers have been arrested in connection with the shooting and are facing a variety of charges.
The incident took place this week in Zaragoza, Coahuila — a Mexican rural town located about 60 miles south of the border with Texas. Earlier this week, a local police commander named “Parras” barely escaped an attack by cartel gunmen and called for backup, according to information provided to Breitbart Texas by Coahuila state authorities. Several officers within the city and surrounding areas responded to the call and began searching for the cartel gunmen.
Local police spotted a sedan similar to the one used by the gunmen and, instead of trying to stop them, they began firing. The policemen shot the vehicle at least 11 times striking a two-year-old girl named Nataly and her two adult relatives. Despite a manhunt, authorities did not capture the gunmen who had attacked the police commander. The two adults were rushed to a local hospital in Zaragoza and then to another city where they are listed in serious condition.
The toddler’s grandmother was working near the scene of the shooting and rushed to pull the child out of the car as authorities called for help. Investigators with the Coahuila Attorney General’s Office opened a homicide investigation into the case and arrested two of the police officers who are believed to have fired on the family.
The tragic shooting comes at a time when gunmen from the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas are carrying out numerous attacks on police and government buildings throughout the northern part of Coahuila. As Breitbart Texas reported, this week, a group of gunmen clashed with police in the rural community of Guerrero leaving eight dead gunmen. Another gunman who was injured in that shootout made his way across the Rio Grande where U.S. Border Patrol provided medical aid and arrested him.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by “J.M. Martinez” from Coahuila.
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