MX - Suspect Captured in shooting of US consulate official, Guadalajara, 6 Jan 2017

Mexican prosecutors said Saturday they are searching for a gunman who opened fire on an official of the U.S. consulate in the western city of Guadalajara.

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Surveillance video of the attack shows the gunman following the official in a parking garage. The official, whose name was not released, was dressed in shorts. The attacker doesn't appear to try to approach the official while he is walking, but instead waits for him to exit the parking garage in his vehicle and fires a round into the car's windshield.

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A US consular official was shot in Guadalajara, Mexico, on Friday night, prompting the FBI to offer a $20,000 reward for information that leads to identifying the suspect.

On Saturday morning, Mexico’s federal attorney general’s office said in a statement that it was working with the US embassy “to find the those responsible for this unfortunate event”. It added that sate and federal authorities had been assigned to protect the victim, who is in a stable condition.

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Surveillance video released by the Consulate General in Guadalajara showed a man in a purple shirt, dark pants and white shoes waiting near a garage Friday evening as a black vehicle pulled up to the exit gate.

In the video, the man in the purple shirt points a gun at the driver and fires once, then runs away. The car lurches forward, then stops, as several people begin rushing toward the driver.

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The consulate also released other videos, both time-stamped about 6:15 p.m. Friday. One showed the man in the purple shirt in greater detail — and wearing dark sunglasses — as he ran behind a truck.

In another, a thinner man in red shorts and a gray tank top is shown at a garage parking payment machine. As he walks away, the man in the purple shirt follows.

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The wounded consular official in Guadalajara is Christopher Ashcraft, who is in his first posting with the State Department, according to a friend ...

Ashcraft was coming out of a gym in Guadalajara in the early evening, about 6 p.m., at the time of the shooting, the friend said.

According to the friend, an assailant reportedly asked for Ashcraft by name at the gym's reception, then followed him to his car. Ashcraft was shot while sitting inside the car, hit on the right side of his chest, the friend said.

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In recent years, a handful of U.S. consular employees and other U.S. agents have been attacked and killed in Mexico, according to the Associated Press.

In 2014, a Mexican gang leader was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the 2010 slayings in of U.S. consulate employee Leslie Ann Enriquez Catton, her husband and the husband of another consulate employee as they left a children’s birthday party in Ciudad Juárez, the AP reported.

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Indy Anna said:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ar-official-in-mexico/?utm_term=.aee8ef66a1a9


So, the suspect knew Ashcraft. Why did he target the official?

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CCTV footage of the attack shows the gunman, who is wearing blue medical scrubs and a wig, pacing outside a shopping centre car park.

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oceanblueeyes said:

Maybe he didn't know him but was given his name and where he was possibly located at the time of the shooting. He could have been paid by the cartel to do the hit.

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The man suspected of shooting a U.S. consulate officer outside the consulate in Guadalajara, Mexico, has been captured and is from the United States, Mexican officials said.

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The man was captured by the special forces of the state of Jalisco, and handed over to federal prosecutors, according to a tweet from the state of Jalisco.

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The same individual will be expelled and repatriated to the United States of America where his legal status will be determined."

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cuffem said:

Very sloppy work if it was a hit from a cartel,the shooter out in the open,firing through a car and looked as if he fired only once and his mark survived (thank god!).I am going to go with something personal.

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... a source within the Guadalajara police force, who spoke on condition of anonymity, identified the suspect as Zafar Zia, a 31-year-old US citizen of Indian origin.

The source said Zia was captured in a joint operation by the FBI, DEA and Jalisco state officials in Guadalajara’s affluent Providencia neighbourhood early on Sunday morning. The suspect had a .380 caliber pistol tucked into his waistband when he was arrested. The authorities also seized a Honda Accord with California license plates, a wig and sunglasses that may match those seen in footage of the shooting, and 16 ziplock bags containing 336 grams of a substance believed to be marijuana.

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Indy Anna said:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ooting-american-consular-official-guadalajara


I gotta a hand it to you ... Zia is a master of disguise. Who would've recognized him in blue medical scrubs?

Oh, wait .... :facepalm:

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There has been no indication as to the motive for the shooting, but Guadalajara is a known bastion of the Jalisco New Generation cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful and violent drug gangs. The cartel has been blamed for the assassination of dozens of Mexican officials and police officers in recent years but direct attacks on US officials are less common.

Alejandro Hope, a Mexican security analyst and former intelligence officer, said Mexican cartels rarely contract foreigners to carry out killings and generally avoid “self-defeating” attacks on US officials that provoke strong international pressure.

“It doesn’t appear to have been a robbery or an attempted kidnapping. It’s not clear whether organised crime was involved,” he added. “It’s a very strange case.”

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