Security & Strategic Review September 2010 (ISSN 1741-4202)

MEXICO-US | Soldiers kill US national. On 22 August the state police of Guerrero reported that,  in response to an anonymous call, they had found an abandoned van on the Acapulco-Zihuatanejo highway. Inside was the lifeless body of a man whose document identified him as Joseph Stephen Proctor, a US national. Next to him was an AR-15 rifle and two spent bullet cases. Proctor's body had visible gunshot wounds on his arm and forearm. An army lieutenant had later stated that his patrol's vehicle had been fired upon from the van and that, when they returned fire, the van had flipped over. There was no explanation of why the police had been alerted by an anonymous call and not by the military patrol.
The federal chief prosecutor's office (PGR) promptly announced that it was taking over the investigation into the case. By mid-September the defence ministry wrote to the US embassy informing it that two soldiers had been charged with homicide by a military prosecutor. The ministry said that Proctor had failed to heed an order to halt and had consequently been fired upon by one soldier, who hit the car but not the driver. Proctor's vehicle was pursued and intercepted, and two soldiers fired a shot each, wounding Proctor, who nonetheless kept on driving until he crashed his vehicle three kilometres down the highway. There was no mention of Proctor opening fire on the soldiers or of the discovery of a rifle in the van. An autopsy report showed that Proctor had been shot from both sides, and that one bullet had pierced his lung.