The Associated Press
MEXICO CITY- A U.S. detective said Tuesday he is confident Mexico will extradite a Mexican man arrested here for killing Denver detective Donald Young and injuring his colleague.
Raul Garcia Gomez was detained Saturday outside a grocery store in the western city of Culiacan, 640 miles (1,030 kilometers) northwest of Mexico City.
Denver Detective David Fisher, speaking to reporters at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, said police chased Garcia Gomez throughout the United States and Mexico.
But he declined to say what led Mexican federal police to Saturday’s arrest.
Garcia-Gomez is accused of fatally shooting Young and wounding Detective John H. Bishop, who were off-duty and working as security guards at an event in west Denver on May 8. Fisher refused to elaborate on a motive for the killing.
He said he met Tuesday with U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza, and he praised U.S. and Mexican officials for working together to capture Garcia Gomez.
“I’m very confident we will see Raul Garcia Gomez back in Denver,” he said.
Fisher said he was returning to Colorado on Wednesday, and that prosecutors would begin reviewing evidence and putting together their formal extradition request.
Mexico has increased its law enforcement cooperation with the United States in recent years, but it refuses to extradite any suspect who could face the death penalty or life in prison _ two penalties that prosecutors could seek for Garcia Gomez.
Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey has said the extradition process might take months. He said he hasn’t decided whether he will seek the death penalty.
The United States has 60 days from Garcia Gomez’s arrest to formally seek extradition.