Mexico arrests gunman who shot U.S. Consulate Official in Guadalajara

Prosecutors in Mexico say they caught a gunman who opened fire on an official of the U.S. consulate in the western city of Guadalajara.

The Attorney General’s Office of the western state of Jalisco said in the agency’s Twitter account that the suspect had been turned over to federal prosecutors.

Attacks on diplomats are federal crimes in Mexico.

The U.S. embassy has not identified the official, who was shot in his car Friday in Guadalajara. He was in stable condition Saturday after the attack.

A Mexican security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the victim was named Christopher Ashcraft.

The FBI had offered a $20,000 reward for information on the attacker, and surveillance cameras photos of him had been widely circulated.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City urged citizens to limit their movements in the Guadalajara area.

“As the investigation into the January 6 shooting of the U.S. Consulate employee continues, U.S citizens in the Guadalajara area are urged to restrict their movements outside their homes and places of work to those truly essential,” according to the Embassy security message.

“They should also take care not to fall into predictable patterns for those movements that are essential,” the statement continued. “They should vary the times and routes of their movements.”

It was unclear if that was a reference to the apparent stalking of the U.S. consular employee by the gunman, and what appeared to be a direct attempt to kill him.

Surveillance video of the attack shows the gunman following the official in a parking garage. The official was dressed in shorts. The attacker doesn’t appear to try to approach the official while he is walking, but instead waits for him to exit the parking garage in his vehicle and fires a round into the car’s windshield.

U.S. consular employees and other U.S. agents have been attacked in Mexico in the past; the attackers have usually argued the attacks were cases of mistaken identity.