EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – The Mexican government says it has suspended three National Guard members involved in a weekend shootout with smugglers which left two Colombian migrants dead and four more injured by gunfire.
The shooting took place around 1 p.m. Saturday after soldiers on patrol encountered a pickup and an SUV near a wind farm east of Tecate, Mexico, and were fired upon, the National Guard said in a statement Sunday.
Guard members returned fire and disabled one vehicle while the other got away. Soldiers detained a Mexican national and found seven Colombian migrants in the vehicle; two of them were dead on the scene and four more who were injured were taken to a public hospital in Tecate.
The agency said it seized a pistol, a tactical vest and nine ammo magazines for an AR-15-style rifle that could not be located. The Guard said the area – across the border from Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif. – is a known migrant smuggling corridor.
The agency added that it temporarily separated from their duties the three soldiers who fired on the vehicle until all facts are known.