Mexico Probes Famed ex-Police Chief in Murder Case

The ex-police chief of Mexico's northern city of Ciudad Juarez, who was shot and wounded this month, is under investigation in connection with an alleged police killing during his tenure.

Julian Leyzaola Perez, who is credited with bringing down drug cartel violence in the city bordering Texas, survived an attack by two alleged hitmen in Ciudad Juarez on May 8.

Crime rates fell in Ciudad Juarez during his stint from 2011 and 2013 and in Tijuana before that, but his police forces in both border cities faced allegations of committing abuses.

The Chihuahua state prosecutor's office said six Ciudad Juarez police officers detained five youths aged 16 to 22 in April 2012 and shot each one of them three times in the head, but one survived and filed a complaint.

Only one of the officers was arrested and appeared Monday in court, where prosecutors accused him of murdering the youths.

The officer was a bodyguard of Leyzaola Perez and a member of the police force's "urban combat" unit known as the Jaguars Group.

"The investigation against the agents and their chief Leyzaola Perez, from whom they received orders and reported to, is due to the fact that he was the direct coordinator of his group of bodyguards," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Following the attempted murder of Leyzaola Perez earlier this month, authorities detained two suspects who told investigators they did not know who they were ordered to shoot.

The former police chief, who has a private security business in Ciudad Juarez, was driving with his wife and daughter when he was shot four times. His family was unscathed.