A 7-year-old girl who held both U.S. and Mexican citizenship was killed during a Mexican security operation targeting an alleged cartel figure. Her mother says officers aboard a police helicopter fired the shot that struck the child.
Aranza Aidelany Pardo was killed Oct. 29 in Matamoros, the Mexican border city opposite Brownsville, Texas. Six people died during the operation and the cartel roadblocks that followed, according to The Associated Press.
Claudia Pardo GarcÃa told the AP that gunfire from a Tamaulipas state police helicopter hit her daughter in the head. Pardo herself suffered a gunshot wound to the leg.
Tamaulipas Public Security Secretary Carlos Arturo Pancardo said authorities are investigating three officers who were aboard the helicopter. The officers remain on active duty.
The Rio Grande is pictured from an international bridge in Matamoros, Mexico, on Jan. 15, 2026. A 7-year-old American girl was killed in the border city during a Mexican security operation. (Gabriel V. Cardenas/AFP via Getty Images)
The operation led to the arrest of Axel Alfredo Cárdenas RodrÃguez, known as El Titán. He is the son of an alleged Gulf Cartel leader and the nephew of the group’s imprisoned founder, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén.
Pardo said she, her husband and their five children were on their way home when they encountered cartel roadblocks. The family then took a rural route to bypass them.
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According to Pardo, a police helicopter followed their vehicle and then moved in front of it. Her husband got out with his hands raised, hoping to show the officers that the occupants were a family. Gunfire followed.
Aranza was shot in the head, while her mother was wounded in the leg. Pardo said emergency responders did not arrive for more than two hours.
Officials reported roadblocks throughout Tamaulipas after two arrests in Matamoros, pictured above, raising security concerns in the region along the Texas border. (Mahe Elipe/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Tamaulipas state prosecutor Jesús Govea said investigators had interviewed witnesses and were examining video footage and ballistic evidence to establish who fired the fatal shot.
Pardo also told the AP that FBI representatives and U.S. consular officials reached out to the family after the shooting.
The FBI, the State Department and the Tamaulipas prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to News Media’s requests for comment.