MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s National Guard fatally shot two Colombians and wounded four others in what the Defense Department claimed was a confrontation near the U.S. border.
The shootings happened Saturday on a dirt road near Tecate, east of Otay Mesa on the California border, that is frequently used by Mexican migrant smugglers, the department said.
It wasn't clear whether the Colombians were migrants, but one Colombian who was not injured in the shootings was turned over to immigration officials, suggesting they were.
Mexico’s Defense Department, which controls the National Guard, did not respond to requests for comment on that point.
If they were migrants, it would mark the second time in just over a month that military forces have opened fire on and killed migrants.
On Oct. 1, the day President Claudia Sheinbaum took office, soldiers opened fire on a truck, killing six migrants in the southern state of Chiapas. An 11-year-old girl from Egypt, her 18-year-old sister and a 17-year-old boy from El Salvador died in that shooting, along with people from Peru and Honduras.
Describing the events near Tecate on Saturday, the Defense Department said in a statement late Sunday that a militarized National Guard patrol came under fire after spotting two trucks in the area.
One truck sped off and escaped. The National Guard opened fire on the other truck, killing two Colombians and wounding four others. There was no immediate information on their conditions, and there were no reported casualties among the guardsmen involved.
One Colombian and one Mexican man were found and detained unharmed at the scene, and the departments said officers found a pistol and magazines commonly used for assault rifles at the scene.
Colombians have sometimes been recruited as gunmen for Mexican drug cartels, which are also heavily involved in migrant smuggling. But the fact the survivor was turned over to immigration officials and that the Foreign Relations Department contacted the Colombian consulate suggests they were migrants.
Cartel gunmen sometimes escort or kidnap migrants as they travel to the U.S. border.
The three National Guard officers who opened fire have been taken off duty.
Former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who left office Sept. 30, gave the military an unprecedentedly wide role in public life and law enforcement; he created the militarized Guard and used the combined military forces as the country’s main law enforcement agencies, supplanting police. The Guard has since been placed under the control of the army.
But critics say the military is not trained to do civilian law enforcement work. Moreover, lopsided death tolls in such confrontations — in which all the deaths and injuries occur on one side — raise suspicions among activists whether there really was a confrontation.
For example, the soldiers who opened fire in Chiapas — who have been detained pending charges — claimed they heard “detonations” prior to opening fire. There was no indication any weapons were found at the scene.
FILE - Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, center, reviews the troops with Defense Minister Gen. Ricardo Trevilla Trejo, left, and Navy Secretary Alt. Raymundo Pedro Morales, at Campo Marte in Mexico City, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File)
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A former police officer was convicted of murder Monday in the shooting of Andre Hill, a Black man who was holding a cellphone and keys when he was killed.
Officer Adam Coy, who served nearly 20 years with the Columbus police force, shot Hill four times in a garage nearly four years ago. Coy, who is white, was fired after the shooting. He later told jurors that he thought Hill was holding a silver revolver.
“I thought I was going to die,” he testified. It was only after he rolled over Hill’s body and saw the keys that he realized there was no gun, Coy said. “I knew at that point I made a mistake. I was horrified.”
Police body camera footage showed Hill coming out of the garage of a friend’s house holding up a cellphone in his left hand, his right hand not visible, seconds before he was fatally shot by Coy. Almost 10 minutes passed before officers at the scene began to aid Hill, who lay bleeding on the garage floor. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Weeks after the December 2020 shooting, the mayor forced out the police chief after a series of fatal police shootings of Black men and children. Columbus later reached a $10 million settlement with Hill’s family, the largest in city history. The Columbus City Council also passed Andre’s Law, which requires police officers to render immediate medical attention to an injured suspect.
Prosecutors said Hill, 47, had followed the officer’s commands and was never a threat to Coy, who now faces at least 15 years in prison
“We’re taught do what the cops tell you to do and you can survive that encounter,” Franklin County assistant prosecutor Anthony Pierson said during closing arguments. “That’s not what happened here.”
The officer’s attorneys argued that Hill’s lack of a weapon did not matter because Coy thought his life was in danger. “He wasn’t reckless, he was reasonable,” said attorney Mark Collins.
Coy had gone to the neighborhood to investigate a complaint about someone inside a running vehicle when he first encountered Hill sitting in an SUV. Hill told Coy he was waiting on a friend to come outside.
The officer said he thought Hill seemed dismissive and then suspicious after Hill walked to a house and knocked on the door before entering the garage.
Coy said he lost sight of Hill and suspected he might be trying to break into the house. Coy used a flashlight to spot Hill in the garage and told him to come out, the officer testified.
When Hill walked toward him, Coy said he could not see the man’s right hand and then saw what he thought was a revolver. He said he yelled, “Gun! Gun!” and then fired at Hill.
Family and friends said Hill — a father and grandfather — was devoted to his family and was a skilled tradesman who dreamed of one day owning his own restaurant, after years of work as a chef and restaurant manager.
Coy had a lengthy history of complaints from residents, with more than three dozen filed against him since he joined the department in 2002, according to his personnel file. A dozen of the complaints were for use of force. All but a few were marked “unfounded” or “not sustained.”
FILE - This image from video provided by WSYX/WTTE shows former Columbus police officer Adam Coy, who is accused of fatally shooting Andre Hill, a Black man who was holding a cell phone and keys, during his trial, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio. (WSYX/WTTE via AP, File)
