GUADALAJARA, Mexico, Jan. 9 (UPI) — Mexican authorities arrested a man Sunday in connection with the shooting of a U.S. diplomat on Friday night, with plans to extradite him to the United States already underway.
Mexican and U.S. officials announced Sunday the person suspected of shooting Christopher Ashcroft, a U.S. diplomat, in a parking lot in Guadalajara was arrested following a two-day search. The officials did not give a motive or any other information about the man, whom Mexican authorities said they plan to deport.
“My thoughts and prayers remain with this officer and his family during this difficult time,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a press release, adding that he appreciated Mexico’s “swift and decisive arrest of a suspect in the heinous attack.”
In surveillance videos posted on Facebook by the U.S. General Consulate in Guadalajara, a man can be seen at the gate of a parking lot in blue clothes and sunglasses. The man approaches another man, identified by local media sources as Ashcroft, who is paying at an automated parking machine.
The unidentified assailant, holding a gun, then waits for Ashcroft’s car to drive around and fires once into the car before running away through a nearby neighborhood.
Mexican officials say they will deport the man back to the United States, though they did not offer details.
Ashcroft is in stable condition, according to Kerry.
