EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A roadside ambush has left four police officers dead and two others with gunshot wounds in a town in Guerrero between the state capital of Chilpancingo and the tourist resort of Acapulco.
The city of Escudero identified the deceased as Police Chief Juan Carlos Vitrago and officers Joel Galindo Suastegui, Jesus Alejo Sanchez and Gustavo Molotla Ramos. They were shot around 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday while riding a vehicle in the Vista Alegre neighborhood in a suburb of Escudero called Tierra Colorada, the Guerrero Attorney General’s Office said.
The AG’s Office said state police, the Mexican army and National Guard were patrolling the area near Federal Highway 95 and looking for suspects. Authorities have not disclosed a possible motive for the ambush.
Soldiers and state officers also are looking for five young men and a woman who went missing a few days ago in the Pacific resort of Acapulco.
The missing include Daniel Moy Abarca Garcia, an LGBT rights activist, and five others who were last known to be attending a meeting at a drug rehab clinic in Acapulco, Mexican media reported. The reports identify all of the missing as members of the LGBT community.
On Tuesday, relatives of the missing took to the streets of the city with signs and banners demanding their relatives be returned “dead or alive.”
The Guerrero AG’s Office later met with the families to brief them about the ongoing investigation.
The U.S. State Department on Aug. 22 urged Americans not to travel to the state of Guerrero due to crime.