San Luis youth shot to death during chase
Torres in the ‘wrong place at the wrong time’
Julian Torres, a San Luis, Ariz., teen fatally shot by Mexican police during a car chase, was a friendly youth and talented baseball player who made a bad choice that left him in the wrong place at the wrong time, his coach said this week.
Torres, 15, was struck in the head by a gunshot while riding in the passenger’s seat of pickup truck fleeing from Mexican police near Mexicali, Baja Calif., early Saturday morning.
The chase began after the driver, Gildardo Montoya, refused to stop at a checkpoint set up by Baja California police on the highway between Mexicali and San Luis Rio Colorado, according to the Baja state prosecutor’s office.
Mexican federal police who joined Baja police in the chase fired on the pickup after someone from the vehicle shot at them, according to the prosecutor’s office. A gunshot went through the back window of the truck, striking Torres and killing him instantly.
Montoya, a 42-year-old resident of San Luis Rio Colorado, Son., was wounded in the exchange of gunfire and remains jailed in Mexicali.
Torres, who was born in Yuma, played baseball in the Villegas Baseball Academy run by Francisco Villegas, a San Luis, Ariz.-based baseball trainer who scouts area players for Mexico’s professional league.
“He was a good boy, very happy and friendly,” Villegas said. “He was a leader in the game. The other players looked up
to him.”
Mexican media initially said the chase and shootout stemmed from a confrontation among criminals, but Villegas said Torres, while facing the problems common to many youths, was not involved in criminal activity.
“He just made a bad decision and ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was not a criminal.”
Prior to his burial this week, Torres’s casket was taken to the Andres Mena Montijo baseball stadium in San Luis Rio Colorado, where a public tribute was paid to the teen who got his start playing the sport in child leagues.
Torres had gotten permission from his father to go with some friends to a party in San Luis Rio Colorado the night before his death, Villegas said.
While there, he agreed to accompany Montoya, the father of one of the friends, to the Mexicali area.
The teen’s father, Julian Torres, told the Baja California daily newspaper La Cronica that his son had gone with Montoya to deliver a cake in Ejido Tamaulipas, a small community
near Mexicali.
La Cronica reported that that gunshots from the fleeing truck were fired by the driver. The chase ended up in Ejijo Cuernavaca, along the highway between Mexicali and San Luis Rio Colorado.
Investigators said they found a .357-caliber revolver next to Torres’ body but said evidence ruled out him having fired the weapon.