SAN ANTONIO – A police officer and cab driver wounded in a shooting in Piedras Negras, Mexico, have died and U.S. Marshal Robert Almonte says a San Antonio murder suspect is to blame.
Ignacio Ruiz, 37, is now in custody after authorities say he was involved in a shootout Saturday with police in Piedras Negras.
Almonte says a cousin of Ruiz drove him to the border as law enforcement in San Antonio searched for Ruiz in connection with a murder on New Year's night.
Police in Piedras Negras say Ruiz forced the cabbie to drive him to an area with no police, but the driver alerted a police officer, sparking the deadly shootout.
They say Ruiz wounded an officer, the cab driver and two women.
"The cab driver attempted to flag down a police officer. Apparently Mr. Ruiz noticed that, shot the cab driver, shot the police officer and also, in the course of the shooting, shot two other bystanders," said Almonte.
The driver died Saturday night, the officer died Sunday morning and the two wounded women remain hospitalized.
Ruiz conducted a jailhouse interview with the Mexican website La Rancherita del Aire.
In that interview he admitted to the shootings.
Almonte says U.S. marshals and members of the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force tracked Ruiz to Piedras Negras and alerted Mexican police.
He says they then learned Ruiz had been involved in the shootout.
Almonte says task force members had previously followed Ruiz's trail to a mobile home in La Pryor.
He says when they got there Ignacio Ruiz was gone, but they arrested his, brother Ismael Ruiz, and cousin Isidro Lopez.
Almonte says Lopez admitted to driving Ignacio Ruiz to Eagle Pass, where Ruiz then crossed into Mexico.
He says Ismael Ruiz was arrested on a September 2014 warrant for assaulting a peace officer.
Ignacio Ruiz had previously done a long prison term for shooting a police officer and was paroled last December.
Almonte says Ruiz will remain in Mexico to face the charges against him and would only be returned here to face the murder charge after he faced Mexican justice.