Officer Beaten With Own Gun in Tijuana; 3 Suspects Sought

An auxiliary Tijuana police officer was badly injured early Sunday during a dispute with three unidentified people in a parking lot near the tourist drag of Avenida Revolucion, Mexican police said.

The officer was in serious condition with head injuries at the Istecali Hospital in Tijuana, authorities said.

The three suspects fled the scene in a blue car with California plates, said Mexican authorities, who were in touch with San Diego police about the case.

Details on the incident were sketchy and conflicting Sunday. A San Diego police report indicated that the officer had been shot in the head and was near death.

However, Sergio Barrios, homicide investigator for the Baja California State Judicial Police in Tijuana, said the officer survived and was never shot, but was beaten in the head with his own pistol.

Barrios said the three suspects--described as a man and two women, all of Asian appearance and in various stages of intoxication--apparently wrestled the gun from the officer, who was on foot in a parking lot on 3rd Street, between Revolucion and Constitucion avenues. The cause of the dispute was not immediately evident, Barrios said.

The state police official identified the wounded officer as Francisco Uribe Lopez, 50, a member of the Tijuana auxiliary commercial police. The commercial police officers guard stores and other establishments and are paid by the shopkeepers, Barrios said.

Police are continuing the investigation.