Four More Traffic Police Shot in Acapulco

(Acapulco, AN 5 November) Four traffic police died and a fifth was wounded after being attacked by gunfire from armed men riding SUV’s along the Bulevar Vincente Guerrero near the working class suburbs of Renacimiento and Zapata in Acapulco yesterday afternoon, around 2:00 pm. One of the victims was found in the median strip, while the others died inside the patrol cars. The two patrols were riding on the thoroughfare when three late model SUV’s came along side them, and men opened fire with AK-47 automatic weapons. Witnesses said that the police had tried to stop the vehicles, and it was then that the gunmen opened fire and fled. No bystanders were injured. Patrol car 706 had eight bullet holes, four of them in the windshield and four on the driver’s side. The District Attorneys for Renacimiento and Zapata have undertaken the formal investigations into the murders. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the traffic police were not armed. This is the second attack by presumed drug gunmen against traffic police. The first was on November 1st on the Scenic Highway (“Escénica”), when three were killed and one wounded. Many members of the municipal police force in the Zapata station have since submitted resignations.