The shooting at the Balderas station in central Mexico City happened after police stopped Luis Felipe Hernandez Castillo, 38, from writing graffiti on the wall of one of the subway platforms. Hernandez Castillo was writing “Este gobierno de criminales,” or “this government of criminals,” federal District Attorney Miguel Angel Mancera said. As police tried to stop him, he drew his gun — a .38 Special handgun — and began firing. The security camera footage shows a busy subway platform as the train pulls into the station just before 5:15 p.m. Friday. Just as the train comes to a stop, there is a disturbance in the crowd, and Hernandez Castillo is seen shooting at an officer in uniform. Watch the dramatic incident unfold The crowd disperses, and the officer runs out of view of the camera. The officer, who was a bank policeman, is later seen on the footage lying dead, face down on the platform. The footage shows a man in a white shirt running off the train and trying to wrestle Hernandez Castillo. The man, who Mancera said was a federal security agent in civilian clothing, chases Hernandez Castillo around the platform. He frequently falls either because he slips or tries to avoid being shot. The federal agent is on the floor facing him, about to get up and try to grab him, when he is shot in the head and falls to the ground.
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Amazingly, a scattered handful of people remain on the subway platform during the shooting. Some are on the train, afraid to get off or at times making a run for it. Others are walking on the platform very close to the shooter, seemingly undisturbed. Seven minutes later, the camera pans out to show Hernandez Castillo’s two victims — the federal agent lying on his back and the bank police officer in the foreground. Hernandez Castillo remains on the train, occasionally firing his gun and peeking out of the train. At 5:23 p.m., the camera shows first one, then two, then three plain-clothes police getting into position on the platform. Within moments they rush Hernandez Castillo and pull him out of the train, with nearly a dozen police officers then wrestling him to the ground. Hernandez Castillo was treated at a hospital for a bullet wound to the right shoulder before being transferred to the local attorney general’s office, a common place to hold prisoners during preliminary investigations, a spokesman for the attorney general said. He faces two counts of murder and one count each of attempted murder, aggression, resisting arrest, and disturbing the peace, said the spokesman, who declined to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the press. In addition to the two people killed, five people were wounded by gunfire and three were hurt in the crowd’s stampede, the spokesman said.
Hernandez Castillo’s motive is still under investigation, Mancera said. Witnesses told local media that they heard Hernandez Castillo yelling slogans against the government before the attack. The names of the two dead are not yet known, Mexican justice officials said.
