State security chief among 5 dead in Mexico helicopter crash

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Five people, including the top security official for the central Mexico state of Aguascalientes, have died in a helicopter crash. Aguascalientes Gov. María Teresa Jiménez said in a news conference Thursday that the state public security helicopter crashed near a hospital in Jesús María, Aguascalientes, killing state security chief Porfirio Sánchez Mendoza and four others. Jiménez said preliminary information suggested the crash was an accident. Sánchez Mendoza was arrested in February when the federal Attorney General’s Office opened a case against him for alleged torture, but he was released seven months later due to a lack of evidence and returned to his job.