A 21-year-old American has been named as one of five men shot dead by the Mexican military in the northern border town of Nuevo Laredo.
Gustavo Suárez and seven other men were returning from a night out clubbing when the pickup truck they were traveling in was shot early Sunday morning.
The other fatal victims have been identified as Gustavo Pérez; Wilberto Mata; Jonathan Aguilar; and Alejandro Trujillo.
A sixth victim, Luis Gerardo, was shot at least two times and remained in serious condition at a local hospital.
Alejandro Pérez told Univision that he saw one of the soldiers shoot and kill his brother, Gustavo Pérez.
Alejandro Pérez also revealed that the soldiers forced him into making a videotaped confession in which he stated that the group was responsible for being fired on.
‘They said that if I wanted to live, to say they we were at fault,’ he said.
Nuevo Laredo Human Rights Committee director Raymundo Ramos told DailyMail.com on Wednesday that 12 soldiers were present during the shooting and that four have confessed to having fired their weapons.
However, none of the soldiers have been taken into custody.Mexico’s Defense Department released a statement Tuesday and said that the soldiers heard gunshots and approached the pickup truck that had no license plates and no lights.
The driver of the vehicle is said to have accelerated ‘in a brusque and evasive way.’
The speeding pickup truck then crashed into a stationed vehicle and the soldiers started shooting when they heard the crash.
The military did not say if they thought the loud impact of the accident, was a gunshot.
A police report obtained by The Associated Press indicated that driver failed the soldiers’ orders to come to a full stop.
Three of the bodies were found in the vehicle and two were on a sidewalk.
The border town killings sparked a violent confrontation between friends and family members and soldiers.
Video footage recorded by a bystander showed Suárez’s father visibly inconsolable and charging at a soldier while the military was trying to remove the pickup truck from the scene.
The Defense Department said the case had also been referred to military prosecutors for investigation of any possible violation of military codes.
