U.S. Sailor Shot to Death and Wife Beaten in Mexico

A U.S. Navy petty officer visiting Mexico on leave was shot to death and his wife beaten by a group of men outside Mexico City, the U.S. Embassy said Wednesday.

Gregory Lawless, 23, a petty officer 2nd class based at the Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego, was a member of an air-sea rescue unit, an embassy official said.

Lawless and his wife Lydia were attacked, apparently by robbers, either late Saturday night or early Sunday morning on the road through the Ajusco Mountains, about 11 miles outside Mexico City, police said.

The couple had stopped on the side of the road when they were attacked by four armed men who shot Lawless twice, once in the throat and again in the head, police said.

The assailants beat Lydia Lawless, who was later found on the side of the road by highway police.

The U.S. Embassy is shipping Lawless’ body back to San Diego, a spokesman said. The embassy said it did not know his hometown.

The attack was the latest incident in a series of assaults on Americans visiting Mexico. Two American couples who disappeared in the city of Guadalajara on Dec. 2 have still not been found, the embassy official said.