The Associated Press
MEXICO CITY- A U.S. resident was shot to death by a Mexican police officer in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, authorities said on Sunday.
Mexican authorities said an officer lost his balance and fired by accident, moving to avoid a vehicle that had been pulled over for a traffic violation and unexpectedly started moving again, in the settlement of Puerto Palomas outside Ciudad Juarez.
Maria Guerrero, 29, a resident of New Mexico state, was shot in the back and died hours later after being transported a hospital in El Paso, Texas, across the Mexican border from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state police spokesman Carlos Gonzalez said.
“We’re sorry for what happened,” he said. “It was a regrettable accident.”
It was not clear whether Guerrero was a U.S. citizen. Contacted Sunday, U.S. consular officials in Ciudad Juarez refused to comment.
The U.S. State Department last week renewed a travel advisory warning Americans about violence in Mexico, especially along the U.S. border.
The police officer who fired was jailed pending an investigation of the shooting by state prosecutors.