Violence after police kill local resident

Tultitlan, Mexico: Residents of this town just north of Mexico City overturned and smashed immigration service trucks after a policeman shot and killed a local man evidently mistaking him for a Central American during a raid on undocumented migrants.

Townspeople expressed outrage on Monday that police would open fire on fleeing migrants and said the victim was a construction worker on a lunch break whose dark skin and work clothes may have made him look like a potential target.

Investigative police commander Jorge Cruz Cid confirmed the killing, and said that several officers from the police force for Mexico State who were supporting immigration agents in the raid had been detained for questioning.

Tultitlan is a rail junction town frequented by Central Americans who slip across the Guatemala-Mexico border and ride trains north in a bid to reach the United States.

Immigration raids here are frequent migrants often stop here to buy or beg for food and residents say police often detain townspeople mistakenly.

"They [police] came and grabbed one of the girls who lives on the next block, but her family came out to defend her," said Tultitlan housewife Virginia Sanchez. "They come and grab people just because they are dark-skinned."

Police investigators tried unsuccessfully for hours to convince townspeople to let them drag away the two smashed trucks, but residents said they first wanted assurances the officer would be prosecuted.

By law, Mexico's National Immigration Institute is the only agency designated to handle undocumented migrants, but the institute often depends on different police agencies for support, as in Monday's raid.