Suspected cop slayer fatally shot in gun battle in SLRC
SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Son. – Two people, one of them identified as a suspect in the slaying of two police officers earlier this month, were fatally shot Sunday afternoon during a 1-1/2-hour gun battle with police and Mexican soldiers in this border city Sunday afternoon.
The gun battle occurred as municipal and state police officers backed by soldiers tried to arrest the pair, who were holed up in a home on 5 de Mayo, between 24th and 25th streets, municipal police said in a bulletin.
One of the slain fugitives was identified as “Jose Eduardo Perez,” who was sought in the slayings of municipal police Officers Raul Ramos and Ricardo Castro in a southside restaurant the night of Dec. 4. Killed
with Perez in the shootout was an unidentified woman, police said.
Police identified the slain woman by her first name only, Elsy, but provided no details about why she was in the house or whether she was involved in the killings of the officers.
An undisclosed number of other unidentified persons in the home during the gun battle were later taken into custody, police said.
San Luis Rio Colorado Mayor Santos Gonzalez confirmed for the internet news site Sonora News that police located Perez in the course of an investigation into the slayings of the officers, who were eating in the restaurant when they were shot by multiple attackers described as being heavily armed.
“(Police and soldiers) killed some very dangerous assassins,”
Gonzalez said. “After the devious murders of the two officers, we coordinated with authorities at the different levels for this investigation. This was not a coincidence. Unfortunately a lot of shooting could be heard, but the results were very good.”
Police used an armored vehicle to assault the home in the course of the shootout that ended about 3:30 p.m.
Police said no neighbors or other bystanders were injured in the shootout, which ended about 3:30 p.m. Media outlets in San Luis Rio Colorado reported that several families in nearby homes were evacuated from their homes as a precaution.