Mexico's National Human Rights Commission said on Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016, that it has concluded... (Associated Press) 
 
 MEXICO CITY (AP) — Federal police killed at least 22 people on a ranch last year, then moved bodies and planted guns to corroborate the official account that the deaths happened in a gunbattle, Mexico's human rights commission said Thursday. One police officer and 42 suspects were killed in the raid on a ranch in Tanhuato, Michoacan state, on 15 May. The government has said the dead were drug cartel suspects who were hiding out on the ranch in Tanhuato, near the border with Jalisco state. The National Human Rights Commission said there were also two cases of torture and four more deaths caused by excessive force. In its report (in Spanish; warning: contains graphic images), the CNDH asserts that: 
 
 5 suspects were killed in the helicopter attack; 22 were arbitrarily executed; 15 died in unclear circumstances 
 
 2 bodies were burnt by police 
 
 2 suspects were tortured in custody 
 
 police moved bodies and weapons to cover up arbitrary killings 
 
 "The investigation confirmed facts that show grave human rights violations attributable to public servants of the federal police,'' commission President Luis Raul Gonzalez Perez said. Mexico's national security commissioner, Renato Sales, who oversees the federal police, denied the accusations, holding his own news conference before the rights commission had finished its own. "The use of weapons was necessary and proportional against the real and imminent and unlawful aggression," he told reporters. "That is to say, in our minds they acted in legitimate defense." The lopsided death toll had led to suspicions that officers might have arbitrarily killed people during the operation against suspected members of the Jalisco New Generation cartel. 'Four thousand rounds' 
 
 Police used a Black Hawk helicopter during the operation, reportedly firing some 4,000 rounds into the ranch, known as the Rancho del Sol, during the initial assault. The helicopter itself was hit by gunfire, investigators found.
– Federal police executed at least 22 people on a ranch last year, then moved bodies and planted guns to corroborate the official account that the deaths happened in a gunbattle, Mexico's human rights commission says, per the AP. A total of 43 people, including one police officer, were killed in the confrontation in the western state of Michoacan on May 22, 2015. The National Human Rights Commission says five people were killed when a police Black Hawk helicopter fired 4,000 rounds at the ranch house after the officer was shot, the BBC reports. Another 22 were arbitrarily executed, while the circumstances of the other 15 deaths are still unclear, according to the commission. The lopsided death toll had led to suspicions that officers might have arbitrarily killed people during the operation against suspected members of the Jalisco New Generation cartel. Eighteen of the victims were found barefoot and one just in his underpants, leading the commission to conclude most were asleep when police arrived. Thirteen of the 22 people the commission says were executed had been shot in the back. Mexico's national security commissioner denies the accusations of what the commission called "grave human rights violations," saying federal police ordered the suspects to drop their weapons and surrender, but were answered with gunfire.