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Mexico arrests suspected attacker of U.S. consular agent

Xinhua, January 9, 2017 Adjust font size:

Mexican officials on Sunday said they arrested a man suspected of shooting and wounding a U.S. consular agent in Mexico's second-largest city, Guadalajara, capital of western Jalisco state.

The state prosecutor's office (FGE) said on Twitter that "Special Forces of the FGE arrested the consular agent's attacker," and handed him over to the federal Attorney General's Office (PGR).

According to local media, the man arrested is a 31-year-old U.S. citizen of Indian descent named Zafar Zia, who has been living in Guadalajara since November.

As part of the arrest, the daily Reforma reported, officials also seized a .38-caliber pistol, small amounts of marijuana and a Honda with California license plates.

The motive for the shooting was a disagreement over a visa procedure, the daily said, though officials have yet to confirm any details.

The consular agent was shot on Friday as he was driving out of a building in the city's central Vallarta Norte district.

Video footage released on Saturday by the U.S. embassy in Mexico showed the suspect waiting on the sidewalk for the agent to leave the building in his car before firing from a few meters away, and breaking a window.

Following the attack, U.S. officials offered a 20,000 U.S.-dollar reward for information leading to the identification of the suspect, who appears in the video wearing hospital-style blue scrubs, a wig and sunglasses. Enditem