3 Killed in shootout in western Mexico

Guadalajara — A police officer and two suspects were killed Friday in a shootout in the western Mexican city of Tlajomulco, the Jalisco state attorney general said.

The confrontation began after state police on a routine patrol spotted “suspicious-looking people” around a residence used as a safe house by organized crime, Gerardo Octavio Solis told the media at the scene of the gunfight in suburban Guadalajara.

As police approached the residence, suspects holed up inside starting shooting, killing one officer and wounding his 9-year-old son.

The patrol called for reinforcements and additional state and municipal police units, along with army troops, arrived within minutes.

The ensuing battle lasted nearly two hours and resulted in the deaths of two suspects and the arrest of three others. Several members of the security forces were wounded.

Two other attacks on law enforcement personnel occurred at roughly the same time as the first shots were fired at the safe house, Solis said.

A policeman was fatally shot elsewhere in Tlajomulco, while a section coordinator with the state AG office survived an attempted assassination in Zapopan, also in greater Guadalajara.

Assailants fired at least 15 shots at the SUV in which the unnamed official and her husband were traveling.

The official was unharmed, but her husband was admitted to a hospital with injuries.

Friday’s deaths bring to 13 the number of police officers slain so far this year in the western state that is the bastion of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, led by Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes.

The Nueva Generacion outfit is now seen by authorities as Mexico’s most powerful criminal organization following the weakening of the Sinaloa cartel, whose founder, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, has been convicted in the United States on multiple drug trafficking and murder charges and is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison. EFE

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