Mexican marines shot family with minigun in border city

MEXICO CITY – A new human rights report says Mexican marines improperly used a helicopter-mounted minigun that fires 3,000 rounds per minute in a 2018 border city shooting that killed three civilians.

The rotating-barrel machine-gun is a powerful weapon that according to Mexican guidelines should be used “proportionately,” that is, to counter an equivalent threat.

But the National Human Rights Commission said in a report Wednesday that drug cartel gunmen didn’t present a threat to the helicopter when the gunship opened fire.

A woman and two children were killed when they drove through a running gun battle between marines and cartel gunmen in the northern border city of Nuevo Laredo.

One marine was also killed in the gun battles and 12 were wounded. Four gunmen also died.