A municipal police officer in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, was murdered on Thursday morning and the assassins are still at large.
Deputy Inspector Jesús Eduardo Paredes Galindo and a female detective were riding in a Chevrolet Trax when their SUV was cut off by an unidentified vehicle, forcing the Trax to come to a stop.
At least one armed man stepped out of the car, approached the SUV and opened fire directly at Paredes in the driver’s seat. Paredes was pronounced dead at the scene, while the woman was treated for minor wounds from the shattered glass.
The gunmen apparently had automatic weapons as the local newspaper Noroeste reported that after the brief attack there were at least 30 bullet holes in the windshield and the rear passenger side window was shattered.
Although police and soldiers were on site within minutes, the culprits escaped.
Paredes, a long-serving member of the Mazatlán police force, had steadily moved up the ranks, serving as chief operating officer from 2012-2015. According to the local newspaper Los Noticieristas, Paredes resigned in 2015 after a scandal in which two municipal officers were accused of killing two soldiers. He rejoined the force in 2018. Paredes was on paid leave when he was killed.
#Sinaloa #Mazatlán comandante de la policía municipal asesinado a plena luz del día, los otros datos de el 1000 culpas @lopezobrador_ pic.twitter.com/793zLRBSGw
— REPORTINQUIETO 🇲🇽💫 (@REPORTINQUIETO) September 20, 2024
Witnesses react to the aftermath of the shooting.
According to the newspaper El Universal, Paredes was viewed as a top candidate to take over as police chief once Mayor-elect Estrella Palacios Domínguez was sworn in on Nov. 1.
There has been mounting violence in the state of Sinaloa this month after war broke out between two rival factions of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel. However, the violence has been mostly restricted to the state capital of Culiacán about 216 kilometers to the north of Mazatlán.
As of Thursday morning, there had been 48 murders in Culiacán since the fighting started on Sept. 9, according to the newspaper Puente Libre.
Thursday’s murder in the resort town of Mazatlán occurred near the Universidad del Pacífico Norte campus about 4 kilometers from the iconic Malecón de Mazatlán, described by local hotels as the longest seaside esplanade in Mexico.
The crime scene was still locked down on Friday as investigators looked for clues. Soldiers and local police authorities were heavily armed, and Noroeste reported that one group of soldiers wielded an anti-tank weapon. Security forces spent Thursday night scouring the neighborhood and possible escape routes, but came up empty-handed.
With reports from Milenio, El Universal, Noroeste, Los Noticieristas and Puente Libre
