American man arrested in shooting of U.S. official in Mexico
Reporting from Mexico City — Mexican authorities have arrested a man suspected of shooting a U.S. official in the western city of Guadalajara.
The suspect, Zafar Zia, 31, is a U.S. citizen, according to a spokesperson for the attorney general in the state of Jalisco.
For the record:
11:39 p.m. Aug. 23, 2019An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to Guadalajara as a state. It is a city.
Mexican and U.S. State Department officials have not said why Zia was in the country or why he may have targeted Christopher Ashcraft, a State Department employee who worked out of the American Consulate in Guadalajara.
Surveillance video released over the weekend shows a man dressed in purple medical scrubs, sunglasses and what appears to be a wig following Ashcraft through a public parking lot. The video shows Ashcraft getting into a vehicle and beginning to exit the lot. The suspect approaches, fires a bullet through the front windshield and then runs away.
Ashcraft was shot in the chest but is in stable condition, Mexican authorities have said.
After the shooting, the FBI offered a $20,000 reward for information about the case and Mexican authorities launched a major manhunt.
Zia was apprehended Sunday, according to the office of Mexico’s attorney general, and was soon after repatriated to the U.S., where he will face trial.
Secretary of State John F. Kerry thanked the Mexican government Sunday “for their swift and decisive arrest of a suspect in the heinous attack against our foreign service officer colleague.”
Cecilia Sanchez in the Times Mexico City bureau contributed reporting.
Twitter: @katelinthicum
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