A criminal lawyer was killed and a lawmaker was wounded in two separate armed attacks in Mexico City on Thursday afternoon.
Lawyer Oralia Pérez Garduño was shot dead while driving in the Roma Sur neighborhood of the capital, while Mexico City Deputy and street vendors’ association leader Diana Sánchez Barrios was wounded in an attack in the historic center.
Two men were also shot in the latter attack, one of whom died from his injuries.
After both attacks, the perpetrators fled on motorbikes before abandoning them and disappearing into the Mexico City metro system.
The Mexico City Attorney General’s Office (FGJ) said in a statement that Pérez came under fire while driving near the intersection of Avenida Cuauhtémoc and Viaducto Miguel Alemán.
Two gunmen on a motorbike shot the lawyer, who was driving a Dodge Durango SUV without license plates.
“I saw that she had the window down when they arrived on a motorbike and opened fire,” a witness told the newspaper El Universal.
The gunmen reportedly fired nine shots. The FGJ said it was investigating the murder of Pérez, who had worked for the Mexico City government and had her own law firm.
#Entérate La abogada penalista Oralia Pérez Garduño fue asesinada ayer a balazos a bordo de una camioneta en el cruce de Cuauhtémoc y Viaducto Miguel Alemán, frente a Plaza Delta https://t.co/jue3gmua8j
— REFORMA (@Reforma) October 18, 2024
Oralia Pérez had worked for the Mexico City government and had her own law firm.
Personnel at the Mexico City security command center tracked her aggressors via security cameras as they fled the scene. However, they lost track of them after they dumped the motorbike and entered the Chabacano metro station.
Later on Thursday afternoon, a lone gunman perpetrated an attack on Calle Motolonia, a pedestrian street in the historic center of Mexico City.
Video footage shows that the gunman shot one man before approaching Sánchez, a trans woman and LGBTQ+ rights activist, as she spoke to another man on a motorbike. The aggressor shot the man on the motorbike and subsequently followed Sánchez into the store to which she fled. Inside the store, he reportedly shot the lawmaker in the neck.
The gunman escaped on a motorbike with an accomplice. According to Mexico City authorities, they dumped the motorbike before entering the Balbuena metro station.
Sánchez, a “substitute” deputy currently standing in for her sister, was taken to a hospital where she underwent surgery. The 49-year-old Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) deputy was later reported to be in serious but stable condition.
The man who died in the attack was identified in media reports as Sánchez’s husband, 32-year-old Víctor Alejandro Esquivel Yáñez.
Sánchez’s mother, Alejandra Barrios Richard, said that her nephew was also wounded in the attack and is in hospital in serious condition. “He was shot in the lungs, they’re operating on him,” she said Thursday night.
Barrios Richard accused the Unión Tepito, a crime group based in the notoriously dangerous Tepito neighborhood of Mexico City, of carrying out the attack on her daughter.
She said that her daughter began receiving threats from the group three years ago.
Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada said in a social media post that she had instructed the local Security Ministry to “deploy all necessary resources” to bring those responsible to justice. She also said she directed the ministry to bolster security in the historic center of the capital.
“We regret this violent incident, we’ve offered all necessary support to the families of the victims,” Brugada said.
“… There won’t be impunity,” she added.
With reports from Milenio, Reforma, El Universal, Excélsior, El Financiero and La Razón
