3 San Diego Men Among 4 Killed in Tijuana Shootout

Three San Diego men were among four people killed in the latest burst of apparent drug-related violence in this border city, officials said Thursday.

Mexican police were searching for two men who fled after the Wednesday afternoon shootout at a busy intersection.

Police said there could be a link to an arson that destroyed a car May 11 in the San Diego suburb of Chula Vista. Two of the dead men were witnesses to that fire, said police spokesman Bill Robinson.

The shootout, which Mexican police believe may have been connected to drugs, is the latest in a recent string of violent incidents in Tijuana.

Details of the shootout remained murky, with Mexican state and municipal police giving differing accounts.

According to state police, the shooting began about 3 p.m. inside a gold-colored Dodge Caravan truck, with Tijuana license plates, which had pulled up to a stoplight.

A white Porsche with California license plates was directly behind the Caravan. After the shooting began, a man got out of the Porsche and approached the Caravan. He was shot from inside the Caravan.

Another two men were shot, by people inside the Caravan, after they jumped out of the Caravan and tried to flee.

Police were not sure how the fourth, unidentified man had been shot.

Three of the dead were identified as Aaron Smeke, 19, who lived in the San Ysidro area of San Diego; Marco Antonio Martin, 22, of San Diego, and Jesus Fausto Marroquin Morales, 23, of San Diego.