Nearly 100 protesters rallied at a city council meeting in Grapevine, Texas on Tuesday night to demand justice for Rubén García Villalpando, a 31-year-old Mexican national who was killed by a police officer in Euless, Texas on February 20. Police officer Robert Clark shot García Villalpando after a brief car chase that started at a business where police were investigating a burglar alarm. Police contend that García Villalpando was unarmed, but did not follow officer Clark’s orders.
Also on Tuesday, the family of 27-year-old Ernesto Javier Canepa Díaz held a press conference in Santa Ana, California to addressDíaz’ death on February 27 after police shot him during a robbery investigation. Police have not released details of the incident, but said that Díaz was identified as a suspect in the robbery.
A third police shooting of a Mexican national occurred February 10 in Pasco, Washington, when three police officers gunned down 35-year-old Antonio Zambrano Montes. Police officers said that Zambrano Montes had thrown rocks at them. A video of the shootingshows Zambrano-Montes running from police officers before they fired seventeen shots at him.
Officers involved in all three shootings have been placed on administrative leave as local officials investigate the incidents.
Mexico’s consuls in California, Texas and Washington State have voiced concerns to local authorities about the excessive use of lethal force by police. On Monday, the Mexican government called for the United States Justice Department to monitor theinvestigations of the shootings.
“Because these incidents cannot be seen as isolated cases, the Mexican government has called the Justice Department of the United States to follow the investigations of these cases through its Civil Rights Division and provide assurances that they are conducted with transparency and if necessary, that civil and criminal responsibilities are established,” said the Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Affairs on Monday.
