Fourth Mexico reporter shot dead since March

Gunmen shot dead a crime reporter in northeastern Mexico on Friday, his employers said, the fourth journalist to be murdered in the gang-plagued country since last month.

Maximino Rodriguez Palacios “was shot and killed” outside a store as he arrived in his car with his wheelchair-bound wife, the Colectivo Pericu news website said. His wife was unharmed.

His attackers appeared to have used high-powered rifles, the site said.

With its ruthless drug cartels, Mexico ranks third in the world for the number of journalists killed, after Syria and Afghanistan, according to media rights group Reporters Without Borders.

Three other journalists covering organized crime in Mexico have been killed since last month, in Chihuahua, Guerrero and Veracruz states, according to officials and media groups.