Senior police officer gunned down in Mexico

A state police commander was fatally shot Monday near the southern Mexican city of Chilpancingo, authorities said.

Maj. Esteban Parra Catalan, 55, was killed while on his way to work, an official in the Guerrero state Attorney General's Office told Efe by telephone from Chilpancingo, the state capital.

The shooting took place on a stretch of highway between Chilpancingo and Tixta, the AG's office said in a statement.

Authorities dispatched police and medical examiners to the scene after receiving a tip from a member of the public.

Guerrero and the northern state of Chihuahua had the highest homicide rates of Mexico's 32 states in 2012, each with 77 per 100,000 residents, according to statistics released last July.