14 Police on Trial for Shooting Attack on US Embassy Vehicle Outside Mexico City in 2012 U.S. News
go to original August 21, 2014

In this Aug. 24, 2012, file photo, an armored U.S. Embassy vehicle is checked by military personal after it was attacked by unknown assailants on the highway leading to the city of Cuernavaca, near Tres Marias, Mexico. (AP/Alexandre Meneghini)

MEXICO CITY — Fourteen former federal police officers have gone on trial on charges of using excessive force in a 2012 shooting attack that wounded two CIA agents, Mexico's national security commissioner said Wednesday.

Monte Alejandro Rubido said there was no evidence the police officers had acted on orders from an organized crime gang, saying the attack on the diplomatic vehicle was a case of mistaken identity.

"We identified the motive in the attack and it was a regrettable error on the part of the people there," Rubido told reporters. "The only legal evidence the investigation found was the use of excessive force on the part of the colleagues in the federal police."

He did not say when the trial process began for the defendants, who he said were being held in jail. Trials in Mexico are not public and can last for years.

Mexican officials have long said the federal police group was investigating a kidnapping when it encountered the U.S. agents and a Mexican marine captain and opened fire on their U.S. Embassy armored SUV. Officials say the plainclothes officers reported they thought they were pursuing kidnappers on a rural road.

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