Ex-medical student sentenced in diplomat’s shooting in 2017

WASHINGTON – Prosecutors say a former medical student has been sentenced to more than 20 years in prison for the 2017 shooting of a U.S. diplomat.

A news release from the U.S. Department of Justice said 33-year-old Zia Zafar of Chino Hills, California, was sentenced after previously pleading guilty in a federal court in Virginia to attempted murder of an internationally protected person and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.

According to prosecutors, Zafar was living in Guadalajara, Mexico, in January 2017 when he followed vice consul Christopher Ashcraft from the U.S. Consulate in Guadalajara. Authorities said as Ashcraft drove away from the consulate, Zafar fired a shot into the vehicle and hit the vice consul in his chest.

Ashcraft survived, but the bullet remains lodged in his spinal column.