Mexico captures suspect in death of US journalist

OAXACA, Mexico – Prosecutors in southern Mexico announced Wednesday that they have captured a man suspected in the killing of independent U.S. journalist Bradley Will during protests against the Oaxaca state government in 2006.

Suspect Lenin Osorio is a former state government employee who allegedly shot Will as he videotaped a clash between protesters and government supporters.

Osorio had worked in the state education department, but it was unclear whether he was working there at the time of the killing of the New York man.

Osorio was apparently angered by the acts of an alliance of protest groups that blocked streets and paralyzed Oaxaca's state capital for several months in 2006, said Samuel Castellanos, a special prosecutor for the Attorney General's Office.

Will was covering the conflict for Indymedia.org. He sympathized with the protesters, one of whom was arrested in 2008 for the killing but was later released.

Osorio was captured early Wednesday. Castellanos said he apparently acted alone, and had no known ties to political or union groups. He alleged fired with a .38-caliber pistol from a distance of 43 meters (yards).

The protests started as a teachers' strike to demand higher pay but quickly ballooned into a wider movement against then-Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz, who was accused of rigging his election. The movement was largely ousted from the city in October 2006 when federal police intervened, though clashes continued for months.