Death by Gunfire of Adrián Matsumoto

Commander of the Juárez Municipal Police Intelligence Group

He Will be Honored in Nuevo Casas Grandes in a Ceremony Today

One Man Shot Dead, Another Arrested, Suspected of Participating in the Ambush

From Reports in Diario de Juárez:

It was Sunday afternoon.  Commander Matsumoto, 42, had taken a day off from his job in Juárez and went home to be with his family in Nuevo Casas Grandes.  At about 4:30 p.m., he was driving a white Dodge Ram pickup with his family, apparently after a Sunday drive, when he noticed he was surrounded by vehicles.  He had been careless, even reckless, given who he was.  Now he was in an ambush.

To protect his family from harm's way he got out of the cab, walked forward, and stood in the middle of the street.  His body was riddled with at least 50 bullets while his family watched.

Matsumoto was trained in the U.S. for intelligence investigation, SWAT operations, and first aid, as well as in Mexico for police work.  He had a long career in Chihuahua, in various jobs including second in command at Cereso prison in Juárez, Director of Municipal Public Security in Nuevo Casas Grandes, state police investigator, and second in command of Municipal Police in Juárez.

Controversy had followed him everywhere (click here) .  He was threatened in publicly displayed narco-mantas for "working with groups that operate in the city.". He was accused of abuse of authority and making arbitrary arrests.  In an incident that took place last December he was accused of bursting into a household with other agents, shooting a man, and arresting five men, a woman, and two children.  After learning that the people arrested had been beaten, the judge released them.  They claimed items in the household had been stolen.  On January 29 he killed a man, presumably a burglar, who, finding himself surrounded by police pulled out a gun.

Nuevo Casas Grandes is not at this juncture a good place to be careless about security, especially if you have been a cop there.  The Juárez and Sinaloa cartels operate continually in much of the Western portion of Chihuahua, sometimes competing against each other, sometimes assaulting police.

I am not qualified to render a serious evaluation of Matsumoto's contributions to law enforcement in Juárez. I do know that he represented a different kind of police commander, one with far more professional training and commitment, than those of, say twenty years ago, one with a distinctive kind of style, verve, that many found appealing.  His aplomb, facing unexpected, immediate death, will be remembered.