TIJUANA (Border Report) — Independent photojournalist Margarito Martínez was assassinated Monday morning outside his Tijuana home. His body was found in the driver’s seat of his car.

Initial reports show the assailant approached Martínez from the side of the vehicle and shot him through the window.

Martínez had spent the last decade documenting and chronicling the “police beat” in Tijuana often showing up at the scene of executions and mass killings perpetrated by drug cartels.

According to San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Wendy Fry, Martínez’s wife said he was shot three times as he left for work.

Those who knew him described him as an ethical journalist who was not afraid to take difficult images.

Martínez was 49 years old and worked primarily for Zeta, a controversial weekly newspaper in Tijuana that has published scathing reports about criminal syndicates and politicians involved with them.

He had also done work throughout his career with agencies such as the BBC, the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Martínez is the second journalist murdered in Mexico already this year.