Officials investigating shooting death

Mexican authorities continue to investigate the first shooting death in Matamoros of an American woman from an alleged misfire by Mexican Army troops over the weekend.

Lizbeth Marín Garcia, 36, a Brownsville resident, died late night Friday at the Alfredo Pumarejo General Hospital after receiving a gunshot wound in the right shoulder area that caused internal damage, said Luis Garcia Delgado, Agente del Segundo Ministerio Publico, the equivalent of a district attorney.

"The Ministerial Police is gathering information and evidence in order to clear up the facts of this case and find the responsible parties," Garcia said. "We already received the autopsy and she in fact died from gunshot wounds ... Once we confirmed that the deceased was from the United States, we notified the American Consulate and are in constant communication with them to provide them the necessary information."

Ballistic experts with the Ministerial Police continue to conduct tests to determine the caliber and the make of weapon that fired the round that killed Marín, Garcia said.

"We found a fragment of a projectile made up of lead and copper," he said. "(If the weapon was military)  it hasn’t been confirmed by our agency yet."

If the round was indeed fired by a military weapon, the case will be turned over to the Mexican Federal Courts for further investigation and prosecution, he said.

Marín was buried at the Panteon Los Tomates on Sunday afternoon amid a large gathering of friends and family.

The shooting took place Friday at approximately 11 p.m. at the corner of calles Primera and Jose S. Elcano, when Mexican Army troops stopped some SUV’s at the corner of calles Primera and Solernau a mere block away from the house, said eyewitness Guillermina de Gonzalez.

"It was an accident. What happened is the soldier closed off the streets I turned off the lights and hid inside my house," Gonzalez said. "There was a young lady (Marín) in the living room waiting for my daughters so they could go to a concert."

The woman reports hearing a loud bang and then hearing Marín call out "Doña Guille, Doña Guille, they got me in the arm," before rushing into the room.

"I turned on the lights and saw her lying down," she said. "I called my daughter and told her to hurry because Liz had been shot. Liz, Liz mija, I called out trying to wake her."

Gonzalez tried to call an ambulance but the lines were busy. Once her daughter Zamira arrived, with the help of some neighbors, they loaded Marín into Zamira's truck and rushed her to the hospital, where she died upon arrival, she said.

On Saturday afternoon, military officials visited the house and took down a report from the family, Gonzalez said.

Military officials wouldn’t comment on the case.

Silvia Garcia, a heartbroken mother, built a small altar honoring her daughter, a successful information technology technician at Penske in San Benito.

"Nobody is going to bring my daughter back," Garcia said. "She was a very hardworker, she had a lot of friends. Everyone loved her and they showed their love... I had my daughter and now I don’t have her anymore, I don’t have her. My baby is gone; she is gone and she is not coming back."