One of the two US agents wounded in a Mexican federal police shooting played dead in a bid to stop the attack, but the officers kept firing at their embassy car, Mexican media said Friday, citing the victims’ affidavits.
The two Americans, identified by US and Mexican media as CIA agents, were heading to a military facility south of Mexico City with a Mexican navy captain on August 24 when they came under fire despite their diplomatic car plates.
News channel Noticieros Televisa reported on its website that one of the agents, identified as Stan Boss, was driving the car when it was chased by the officers, who were driving civilian vehicles and wearing civilian clothes.
Boss said one of the gunmen was using an AK-47 type of assault rifle, firing from a distance of just 15 centimeters (six inches), according to Televisa.
After a bullet tore this right ear in half, Boss pretended to be dead by resting his head on the wheel of his disabled vehicle, but the shooting continued and he was hit in the right arm and right thigh, his colleague Chase Garner testified, according to Reforma newspaper.
Mexican navy captain Fabian Molina, meanwhile, shouted “They’re diplomats! They’re diplomats!” as the shots continued.
Prosecutors said 152 bullets hit the sport-utility vehicle.
The shooting only stopped once uniformed federal police arrived, but the officers who reached the scene pointed their guns at the victims instead of the attackers, the navy captain said, according to the reports.
The attorney general’s office has charged 14 federal police officers with attempted murder in the case while five commanders have been accused of providing false statements in the case.
Prosecutors are investigating whether the police officers were working with organized crime. The police has suggested that the incident was a case of mistaken identity during a kidnapping investigation.
The US embassy, which has described the attack as an ambush, said it would not comment on an ongoing investigation and would continue to cooperate with Mexican authorities in the probe.
US agent played dead during Mexico police attack: report
