A Mexico City security official who was set to take up a position in the federal Security Ministry was shot and murdered while shopping in México state on Sunday.

Milton Morales Figueroa, head of the Mexico City strategy, tactics and special operations unit of the Mexico City Security Ministry (SSC), was murdered outside a chicken shop in Coacalco, a municipality just north of Mexico City.

The 40-year-old official carried out intelligence work at the SSC and was responsible for investigating “high-impact” crimes such as the 2022 attack on well-known journalist Ciro Gómez Leyva.

He worked alongside former Mexico City Security Minister Omar García Harfuch, who was wounded in a 2020 attack allegedly perpetrated by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

According to a report by the newspaper Reforma, Morales would have become a member of García’s team once García assumes the position of security minister in the incoming federal administration to be led by Claudia Sheinbaum, who will be sworn in as president on Oct. 1.

García acknowledged Morales’ death in a post on social media.

“Rest in peace our friend and colleague Milton — an extremely generous man, an extraordinary investigator, a great Mexican and above all a great friend,” he wrote on X.

García pledged that authorities will hold those responsible for the murder to account, “as we have always done,” he wrote.

Elementos del Ejército resguardan el sitio donde fue asesinado Milton Morales Figueroa, coordinador general de la Unidad de Estrategia Táctica y Operaciones Especiales de la Secretaría de Seguridad Ciudadana de la Ciudad de México, en el municipio de Coacalco, Estado de México.… pic.twitter.com/4XJQKbemt2

— NMás (@nmas) July 21, 2024

A lone gunman shot Morales in the head before fleeing, according to an SSC statement. He was also shot in the back, according to a police report cited by the newspaper El Universal. He had no vital signs when paramedics reached the scene, the SSC said.

Morales, who lived nearby, was with his sister-in-law and a 77-year-old man at the time of the attack, according to reports. The elderly man was shot in the leg and taken to hospital for treatment.

Security camera footage showed that the aggressor was wearing a green sweater, grey pants and a cap. He was in one of at least two cars that were following Morales’ vehicle before his murder, police sources told El Universal.

Mexico City Security Minister Pablo Vázquez Camacho called the attack “cowardly.”

“In this case, as in other cases we deal with at the SSC, there will be no impunity,” he wrote on X.

“We will work in coordination with the México state Attorney General’s Office and the México state Security Ministry to identify and detain the culprits and bring them to justice,” Vázquez said.

With reports from Reforma, El Universal and El Financiero