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A 7-year-old girl with dual U.S. and Mexican citizenship was shot and killed during a Mexican security operation targeting an alleged cartel member, with her mother accusing police officers aboard a helicopter of firing the deadly shot.
Aranza Aidelany Pardo died Oct. 29 in Matamoros, a Mexican border city across from Brownsville, Texas. She was among six people killed during the operation and subsequent roadblocks erected by the Gulf Cartel, according to The Associated Press.
Her mother, Claudia Pardo García, told the AP that gunfire from a Tamaulipas state police helicopter struck her daughter in the head. Pardo was also wounded in the leg.
Mexican authorities are investigating three officers aboard the helicopter, who remain on active duty, according to Tamaulipas Public Security Secretary Carlos Arturo Pancardo.
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The Rio Grande is seen 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 resulted in the arrest of Axel Alfredo Cárdenas Rodríguez, also known as El Titán, the son of an alleged Gulf Cartel leader and nephew of the group’s imprisoned founder, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén.
Pardo told the AP that she, her husband and their five children were returning home when they encountered cartel roadblocks and took a rural shortcut.
She said a police helicopter began following their vehicle before circling in front of it. Her husband exited with his hands raised to show officers they were a family, but gunfire erupted.
Aranza was struck in the head, while Pardo was wounded in the leg. She said emergency personnel took more than two hours to arrive.
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Mexican officials reported roadblocks across Tamaulipas following two arrests in Matamoros, seen above, prompting heightened security concerns in the region bordering Texas. (Mahe Elipe/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Tamaulipas state prosecutor Jesús Govea said investigators interviewed witnesses and were reviewing video and ballistic evidence to determine who fired the deadly shot.
Pardo told the AP that FBI representatives and U.S. consular officials had contacted her family following the shooting.
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The FBI, State Department and Tamaulipas prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.