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American man arrested in shooting of U.S. official in Mexico

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Mexican authorities have arrested a man suspected of shooting a U.S. official in the western city of Guadalajara.

The suspect, Zafar Zia, 31, is a U.S. citizen, according to a spokesperson for the attorney general in the state of Jalisco.

For the record:

11:39 p.m. Aug. 23, 2019An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to Guadalajara as a state. It is a city.

Mexican and U.S. State Department officials have not said why Zia was in the country or why he may have targeted Christopher Ashcraft, a State Department employee who worked out of the American Consulate in Guadalajara.

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Surveillance video released over the weekend shows a man dressed in purple medical scrubs, sunglasses and what appears to be a wig following Ashcraft through a public parking lot. The video shows Ashcraft getting into a vehicle and beginning to exit the lot. The suspect approaches, fires a bullet through the front windshield and then runs away.

Ashcraft was shot in the chest but is in stable condition, Mexican authorities have said.

After the shooting, the FBI offered a $20,000 reward for information about the case and Mexican authorities launched a major manhunt.

Zia was apprehended Sunday, according to the office of Mexico’s attorney general, and was soon after repatriated to the U.S., where he will face trial.

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Secretary of State John F. Kerry thanked the Mexican government Sunday “for their swift and decisive arrest of a suspect in the heinous attack against our foreign service officer colleague.”

Cecilia Sanchez in the Times Mexico City bureau contributed reporting.

kate.linthicum@latimes.com

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Twitter: @katelinthicum

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