AGUA PRIETA, Sonora — A 30-year-old Arizona man wanted in connection with the Oct. 15 fatal shooting of a Nogales, Sonora dentist was killed during a gun battle two days later with Mexican authorities serving an arrest warrant, officials said.
Ernesto Rascón, a U.S. citizen originally from Prescott Valley, was fatally shot in the shootout during the operation at a house in Agua Prieta, Sonora led by the Criminal Investigation Ministerial Agency (AMIC) and security forces.
Scene of the ambush: the parking lot where the dentist was attacked and killed after leaving his office.
Rascón had been wanted in the killing of Amed de Jesús Preciado Hernández, 42, an oral surgeon in Nogales.
Carlos Alberto Flores, general commissioner of the AMIC in the state of Sonora, said agents had located Rascón on Saturday, Oct. 17, at a home in the Ejidal 2 neighborhood in Agua Prieta.
In the ensuing gunfight, a state investigative agent suffered a graze wound to the head and a municipal police officer was wounded in the left leg. Both were treated and released, the official confirmed.
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Flores explained that the officers had used tactical tools and ballistic shields to enter the property to arrest Rascón.
Rascón received first aid in accordance with operating protocols, but he died at the scene, the Sonora State Attorney General's Office (FGJES) said. An official AMIC vehicle was also damaged by gunfire.
The AMIC commissioner said the case started on Thursday, Oct. 15, when Rascón went to a dental office in Nogales, Sonora, where he had already received several treatment sessions.
The Arizona man arrived in an agitated state and demanded to be seen without an appointment. The dentist was unable to see him, which allegedly angered Rascón, he said.
After leaving the office, Rascón allegedly waited for the dentist in the parking lot.
Flores said that once the dentist got into his pickup truck, the man allegedly shot the dentist multiple times in an attack captured on a security camera.
Hernández died in the parking lot of a hospital in the Kennedy neighborhood in Nogales.
Over the next two days multiple Mexican law enforcement agencies worked to develop a case against Rascón that culminated in serving the arrest warrant.
According to ministerial investigations, the motive for the homicide was related to a grievance over a dental procedure.
Rascón reportedly blamed the dentist for leaving him with a loose tooth.
