Mexican journalist Fredid Román is murdered in Guerrero

() — The Prosecutor’s Office of the state of Guerrero, in southern Mexico, reported in a statement on Monday that it opened an investigation folder for the crime of homicide by firearm of Fredid “N”, which local media identify as the journalist Fredid Román.

Elements of the Mexican Police next to the vehicle in which the journalist Fredid Román was shot dead, in front of the newspaper La Realidad in Chilpancingo, state of Guerrero, Mexico, on August 22, 2022. (Photo by JESÚS GUERRERO/AFP via Getty Images)

Román, who was editor of the weekly La Realidad and a columnist for the online news program La Realidad de Guerrero, was killed on Monday afternoon as he was getting into his car outside his home, according to local media.

“Ministerial personnel and expert services went to the scene to carry out the corresponding investigative acts that allow obtaining the necessary evidence to clarify the facts,” the Prosecutor’s Office said in the statement.

The state government reported in a statement that it asked the Prosecutor’s Office to speed up the investigations to find the whereabouts of those responsible. And he added that they reiterate their commitment to guarantee conditions of peace and the free exercise of journalism.

Román, who focused on reporting and commenting on news from that state, published his last column on Facebook shortly after noon on Monday, hours before his death. That column, titled “State Crime without Blaming the Boss,” critically analyzed the report of the Truth Commission on the Ayotzinapa Case, on the crime of the 43 students from that town in Guerrero in 2014.

Image of the offices of the newspaper La Realidad, in front of the place where journalist Fredid Román was shot dead inside his car, in Chilpancingo, state of Guerrero, Mexico, on August 22, 2022. (Photo by JESÚS GUERRERO/AFP via GettyImages)

So far this year, 15 journalists have been murdered in Mexico, according to monitoring, although in some cases the justice is still trying to determine if these crimes were related to their reporting work.