2 Tijuana Policemen Slain; Traffic Offender Suspected

Two Tijuana policemen were shot and killed early Monday morning, possibly after they stopped a car for a traffic offense, a San Diego police spokesman said.

The victims were identified as Vicente Gutierrez Roldin and Francisco Valdivia Maldonado. No ages were available, San Diego Police Department spokesman Bill Robinson said. Mexican police have no suspects, he added. San Diego police were notified as part of an alert to all police agencies in the region.

Robinson said the incident was reported to Baja California state police about 3 a.m. Both men had been shot in the back at close range and were found lying a few yards away from their patrol car near Rodriguez Dam on the road to Tecate, Robinson said.

Maldonado, who had been shot three times, was pronounced dead at the scene, Robinson said. Roldin, who had been shot twice, died later that morning at the Mexican Institute of Social Security, a clinic in Tijuana.

State police suspect that the two men were shot by an upset traffic offender while they were walking back to their car to get their ticket book, Robinson said.