Mexico City — A Mexican civil-defense officer faces a criminal complaint for killing a crocodile with extended bursts of automatic fire from an assault rifle at a water treatment plant in the north-western state of Sinaloa.

The official has been placed on leave while he faces investigation in the case. The office of the attorney general for environmental protection said over the weekend that the policeman faces criminal charges and up to nine years in jail, because crocodiles are a protected species in Mexico.

The criminal complaint is based on a video clip posted on YouTube. It shows a blue-uniformed man standing beside a water-treatment pond, waiting for the crocodile to appear. Once the crocodile has been baited in, the policeman opens up with automatic weapons fire, riddling the croc with multiple bursts of bullets. People in civil defense T-shirts appear to cheer the killing.

The incident occurred in the city of Ahome, Sinaloa, near the coast of the Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortes.

The Ahome city government said in a press statement over the weekend that the civil defense official, Sergio Liera, has been placed on leave. Apparently, the presence of the crocodile in a water-treatment retaining pond was viewed as a danger.

"I do not fail to recognize the potential risk the animal represented, and so the decision (to kill it) should be analyzed in view of the danger, and the need to protect the public," Ahome Mayor Arturo Duarte Garcia said.

But Duarte Garcia acknowledged that "the excess of violence in this case in regrettable."