A lawyer who was shot outside the Ciudad Judicial court complex in Mexico City on Monday died in a hospital early Tuesday, authorities said.
David Cohen Sacal, a lawyer with the firm Cohen Medina Chávez, was shot in the head and thigh at point-blank range outside the José María Morelos y Pavón building of the court complex, located in the Doctores neighborhood of Mexico City.
The Mexico City Security Ministry said in a statement that an investigative police officer was in the area when the crime occurred and “repelled the attack,” wounding the alleged perpetrator, who was arrested and taken to the hospital.
The alleged aggressor, who was shot in the arm, was later identified as 18-year-old Héctor Hernández Escartín. He reportedly arrived at the crime scene on a motorbike, which was seized by police along with a firearm. The motive for the attack was not immediately clear.
The Mexico City Attorney General’s Office (FGJ) said that Cohen died early on Tuesday morning.
“According to medical reports, the 48-year-old victim lost his life due to injuries caused by gunshot,” the FGJ said, noting that the lawyer was receiving medical care in a private hospital in Mexico City when he passed away.
The FGJ said on Monday that Cohen had died, but later on Monday night reported that wasn’t the case and that the lawyer was in “very serious condition.”
The newspaper Milenio stressed on Tuesday that the second notification of the lawyer’s death was “official.”
The victim was accompanied by two armed bodyguards at the time of the attack, but they were ultimately unable to protect Cohen.
Who was David Cohen?
David Cohen Sacal specialized in civil law, commercial law and administrative law litigation, according to a profile on the Cohen Medina Chávez website. Between 2000 and 2008, he taught a civil law subject at the Ibero-American University.
According to the newspaper Reforma, Cohen acted in “controversial cases like the long and violent conflict for control of” the Cruz Azul cement company and its soccer team. He represented former Cruz Azul president Guillermo “Billy” Álvarez Cuevas, among other prominent businesspeople. Álvarez was arrested in January on organized crime charges.
Reforma also said that Cohen acted in a case defending victims of fraud perpetrated by a casino company. The newspaper noted that the lawyer also represented artists and politicians.
In 2020, the federal government’s Financial Intelligence Unit accused Cohen of receiving money illegally diverted from Cruz Azul.
Last Thursday, the lawyer posted a message on social media that was critical of the changes the previous and current federal governments made to the judiciary. The biggest change has been the election of Supreme Court justices, judges and magistrates in Mexico’s first judicial elections, held in June as a result of a judicial reform that took effect just before former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador left office last year.
Cohen wrote on X: “It took Mexico so many years and so much effort to establish a legal system and federal courts that were more or less independent and protected citizens, only for a bunch of ruffians to destroy it in just seven years.”
Politicians react to the attack
Senator Alejandro Moreno, national president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), said on social media that the attack against Cohen was not an “isolated” incident.
“It’s the reflection of a country engulfed in violence, adrift and without any authority willing to take responsibility,” he wrote on X.
Green Party Senator Manuel Velasco, a former governor of Chiapas, acknowledged the death of Cohen in a social media post.
“With great sadness, we farewell our dear friend David Cohen,” he wrote on X.
With reports from El Universal, Reforma, Infobae, El Financiero, Milenio and El País
