Gunmen storm crowd in Ensenada, killing 4
Two children were among four people killed in Ensenada, Mexico, when gunmen stormed a crowd of several hundred spectators at a cockfight, law enforcement authorities reported Sunday.
Fifteen others were wounded in the attack, which took place Saturday at the Póker palenque, a cockfighting event held at an arena south of the city’s port off Avenida Reforma, according to a statement Sunday by the Baja California attorney general’s office.
The four who died after being taken to hospitals were identified as Angel Osvaldo Pérez Camacho, 11; Alexis Omar Pérez Pucheta, 16; Angel Iñiguez, 22; and Carlos Verdugo Rodríguez, 34.
The statement said 37 witnesses were being questioned. It gave no motive for the attack, nor did it say whether any arrests were made.
Ensenada police said gunfire at the arena was reported at 9:55 p.m. Witnesses told police that five to seven assailants fired weapons. According to an initial report, 21 people were taken to clinics and hospitals.
After searching the area, police said they found an abandoned vehicle that the gunmen are believed to have used to escape.
Mexican media reported that the gunmen came looking for a man nicknamed “Chino.” Neither the Baja California attorney general’s office nor Ensenada police confirmed the reports.
After the attack, members of the Mexican military deactivated a smoke grenade left at the scene, authorities said. Law enforcement officials also recovered 27 cartridges from a .223-caliber weapon and 10 rounds of ammunition from an AK-47 assault rifle.
Initial inquiries into Saturday’s cockfighting activities “reveal that they were taking place without permits,” said the statement from the attorney general’s office.
The attack was not the first time gunmen interrupted a cockfight hosted by Póker palenque. In December 2009, about 10 masked gunmen broke into the same arena, abducting two people, according to a report by the news website Ensenada.net.
In November, in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, authorities reported 12 people were killed in a shootout at a clandestine cockfighting competition.