The May 22 murder in El Paso of Jose Daniel Gonzalez Galeana had all the earmarks of a cartel-war killing, but the El Paso Police Department doesn’t think it was.

The Police Department announced Wednesday that Gonzalez, a Mexican citizen who was shot more than once outside his East Side home at about 10:30 p.m. on May 15, was a mid-level member of the Juarez Cartel.

"We believe it had to do with his involvement with the Juarez Cartel," Officer Chris Mears, a police spokesman, said. "That is not to say that his murder has anything to do with the ongoing cartel war.

"The Mexican violence has been predominately between two feuding cartels for control of the Juarez corridor. That’s not what were saying is the case in this murder."

However, the killing may deserve to be counted as El Paso's first confirmed drug cartel-related homicide since the drug war between rival cartels began in Juarez last year.

A UTEP professor who has closely watched the bloody war between the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels for control of the Juarez corridor to the rich United States drug market believes the police may be right, this time.

That war has cost more than 2,000 lives in Juarez since the start of 2008.

“This is a classic execution,” said political science Professor Tony Payan, who noted that it is the nature of news media to overplay such stories and of political and police officials to downplay them.

As for whether Gonzalez's murder was a cartel hit in El Paso, Payan recited the old cliche: "If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck ..."

“These types of murders are very rare in El Paso,” he said. “It had all the signs of someone walking up and shooting him at close range.

In the hot glare of international news coverage about the Juarez drug war, El Paso officials have for the past year portrayed the city as a safe place that had yet to see any drug violence spill across the Rio Grande.

El Paso has seen three killings his year, but in Juarez, after a weeks-long lull in violence, more than 20 people were killed this in Juarez this past weekend in a rash of drug-related violence.

The killings pushed the number of murders in Juarez toward 600 this year.

Asked if Gonzalez's death was El Paso's first drug war killing, Mears held the line Wednesday, saying Gonzalez’s murder may have been drug-related but going nor further.

“We believe it had to do with his involvement with the Juarez Cartel, but that is not to say his murder has anything to do with the ongoing cartel war,” Mears said. “This involved a Mexican national who was legally in the U.S. at the time of his murder.

"This is an ongoing investigation. There has not been an arrest. So, for the integrity of the investigation, there are details we cannot release at this time."

The way Gonzalez was killed, shot at relatively close range outside his home in the 1300 block of Pony Trail where he and his family lived, was unlike any other murder in El Paso in years, Mears confirmed. The house is on the tax rolls at a value of $363,838 and Adriana Solis is listed as the owner who bought it in February 2008.

Also highly unusual in an El Paso murder case is the fact that 20 days have passed without an arrest.

How many times was Gonzalez shot?

“Multiple times,” is all Mears would say. “I’m not going to give that kind of details. The only people who know them are the people who killed him and us.”

Three weeks after the shooting, Crimes Against Persons Division confirmed that Gonzalez was a lieutenant in the Juarez Cartel.

“There had been rumors, and we’ve been looking at the possibility of it being drug-related,” Mears said. “Now we are focused on the drug thing. But I don’t believe this is over the war between the cartels.”

When Newspaper Tree pressed for a statement from Police Chief Greg Allen, Mears said Allen was unavailable but had said the same thing earlier.

“In a meeting this morning, the chief said, ‘At this point in the investigation, there’s no reason to believe that this murder was related to the ongoing war between Mexican cartels for control of the Juarez corridor,’ ” Mears said, quoting Allen.

Speaking about Mears, Payan said, “It is his job to be very cautious about whatever he says, and he does it very well. But those of us who take a hard look at the way drug organizations operate make the leap that this is organized crime related.

“It may be the first (killing) in El Paso. I think the reason we don’t see more of these crimes is because they realize that in the United States, investigations are real, the law enforcement is well-funded, well-trained and well-staffed, and they will pursue the issue to the end.

“The cartels always prefer their executions in Juarez because the law enforcement community is under funded, understaffed, and they’re corrupt.”

Among the large community of Juarenses living in El Paso, it is, he said, “an open secret about who is connected and who’s not.”

“But the law enforcement and political classes in El Paso don’t want to scratch the surface because they have a stake in protecting the image of El Paso as a safe city, which is a true image.”

In the case of Gonzalez’s murder, Payan doubts it was a cartel-to-cartel killing.

“To me, judging from who he was and where he lived, this looks like an intra-cartel job,” he said. “Maybe he stole money or drugs or became an informant.

“Clearly, it looks like someone from inside the Juarez Cartel was paying to kill him because he upset someone inside the cartel itself.”