EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A freak accident involving a high-powered rifle led to the death of three National Guard soldiers on Tuesday in Juarez, Mexico.
Authorities say several Guard members were on patrol in a pickup along Avenida Ejercito Nacional in Central Juarez in the middle of a dust storm Tuesday afternoon.
According to a National Guard incident report obtained by Border Report, a guardsman manning an assault rifle stand in the back of the pickup allegedly saw a vehicle carrying armed men coming in the opposite direction of the road and released the rifle’s safety.
The rifle went off almost immediately while pointing downward and a bullet went into the cab, mortally wounding the driver of the National Guard vehicle, according to the report.
The vehicle crashed at high speed into a utility pole, killing two additional guardsmen during the impact, the report states. The Guard identified the driver as Luis Daniel S.C.
Three other Guard members were injured in the crash.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum earlier this year sent 10,000 National Guard troops to patrol the border after President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Mexico for not doing enough to reduce illegal immigration and drug trafficking into the U.S.
Even before that, fully armed Mexican National Guard troops were routinely patrolling the streets of Juarez and assisting local police at highway roadblocks.
The Guard did not immediately identify the other deceased soldiers nor the accidental shooter, who survived the crash, according to Juarez municipal police officers at the scene.
(ProVideo in Juarez, Mexico, contributed to this report.)
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