Story By: Amanda Morales, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Central European News

A Mexican police officer has been shot and killed along with his two young children in an armed ambush after a drug cartel hung terrifying messages warning they had “started a war” with the cops.

Officer Abel Gonzalez Rojas, 30, was killed as he was driving his car with his two children aged 5 and 7 between the municipalities of Almoloya de Juarez and Villa Victoria, both in the state of Mexico, central Mexico.

Local newspaper Milenio report the officer was enjoying his day off when his car was stopped by armed civilians who then opened fire on the vehicle.

Gonzalez Rojas died instantly and his two children were injured and taken to the local Children’s Hospital where they died shortly after.

The Attorney General of the State of Mexico has opened an investigation into the incident while regretting the death of the policeman and his two children in an official statement, saying: “We condemn the cowardly attack which he and his children were subjected to and we respectfully send an embrace to all his family and friends, to whom we reiterate all our institutional support.”

The shooting took place days after banners threatening the police were hung around the state of Mexico by the La Familia Michoacana drug cartel.

The banners warned a “war has started” with ministerial police and prosecutors in the state who they accused of “picking on innocent people and being thieves”.

No arrests have been reported.

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