According to Mexican authorities, a gun battle between armed men and police has ended in the deaths of two gunmen.

As reported by The Associated Press, State Attorney General Adonai Carrion stated that the gun battle occurred late on Thursday, in the outskirts of the capital city of La Paz.

An officer in the state of Baja California Sur was injured in the fight. And there was material damage as well, as during the deadly altercation suspects destroyed a police patrol vehicle by using a grenade launcher.

After the gun battle authorities seized two grenade launchers, four grenades, six guns and accompanying ammunition.

Two individuals have been taken into custody, and one of the arrested was wounded.

On Friday, Carrion announced that one of the arrested is a suspected leader of a group of hit men who are tied to at least 20 homicides, which have taken place is La Paz, as well as the murder of a woman in Sinaloa state.

On May 22 a shootout between presumed cartel members and government security forces led to the deaths 42 civilians and one officer in the state of Michoacan.

As reported by Al Jazerra, Federal Police General Commissioner Enrique Galindo said officers involved in the deaths were responding to gunfire by the civilians.

But the international, nongovernmental organization Human Rights Watch pointed out that the disparity in the death count between the two sides has raised some serious questions about whether the use of police force was actually lawful.

Daniel Wilkinson, the managing director at HRW, said “Given Mexican security forces' poor human rights record, a rigorous and transparent investigation is critically important to determine if indeed there was a proportionate use of force during the shootout, and if there were extrajudicial executions.”