US Police Officer Accused of Killing Three People in Mexico Arrested at US-Mexico Border
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers confirmed on Wednesday that they arrested a 42-year-old former Texas police officer, Austin Lindsey, at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in Southern California, after he was formally accused of fatally shooting three civilians in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico earlier this year.
According to a joint statement from the Mexican Attorney General’s Office (FGR) and U.S. Department of Justice, Lindsey is the prime suspect in a June 17 home invasion and robbery in a working-class neighborhood on the outskirts of Tijuana, where three victims – two local small business owners aged 38 and 42, and a 17-year-old high school student who was visiting the home – were shot multiple times and killed at the scene. Mexican investigators said ballistic testing matched bullet casings recovered at the crime scene to the standard-issue service weapon Lindsey was issued during his time with the Austin Police Department, while surveillance footage from nearby properties and witness testimony placed Lindsey at the address 30 minutes before the shooting took place.
Authorities confirmed Lindsey crossed back into the U.S. through an unofficial border crossing less than 24 hours after the killings, prompting the FGR to issue an Interpol Red Notice and formal extradition request to U.S. federal officials in late June. CBP officers said Lindsey was attempting to drive back into Mexico on Wednesday morning to retrieve personal items he had stored in a rented apartment in Tijuana when his biometric data matched the active warrant in the federal law enforcement database, leading to an immediate, non-violent arrest.
Lindsey was terminated from the Austin Police Department in May 2024 following multiple violations of department policy, including unreported use of force and two domestic violence complaints filed against him by former partners, though both complaints were dropped due to insufficient evidence. He is currently being held at the San Diego County Metropolitan Correctional Center, where he will face an extradition hearing in the coming weeks. Baja California human rights officials have called for a swift extradition process, noting that the families of the three victims have been calling for accountability for the killings for nearly three months, and that cross-border law enforcement cooperation is critical to ensuring justice for transnational crimes.
Featured Comments
This is absolutely horrific that someone who was sworn to protect and serve communities would carry out such a brutal, senseless crime across the border. I really hope the extradition process moves quickly so the victims' families can get the justice they have waited months for, no one should be exempt from accountability no matter what their previous career was.
As a CBP officer assigned to the San Ysidro port, I’m really glad our biometric screening system worked exactly as it was designed to here. We’ve put a lot of work into improving cross-border information sharing with Mexican law enforcement over the last few years, and this arrest is proof that those efforts are paying off to keep people safe on both sides of the border.
It’s really alarming to see that this former officer had multiple domestic violence complaints on his record and was still allowed to keep his service weapon after he was fired from the police force. We need far stricter rules around gun ownership for former law enforcement personnel with a history of violent behavior to prevent these kinds of tragedies from happening in the first place, both in the U.S. and abroad.
I hope this case leads to more consistent cooperation between U.S. and Mexican justice systems. Too often people who commit violent crimes in one country try to escape to the other to avoid prosecution, and it’s good to see that process being blocked here. My heart goes out to the families of the three victims who lost their lives for no reason.