Attack kills 3 in Tijuana restaurant

By Sandra Dibble and Anna Cearley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS

September 15, 2006

TIJUANA – Heavily armed assailants ambushed a restaurant where police were eating yesterday evening, killing one federal officer, a waitress and one other person, state authorities said.

The attack occurred about 6 p.m. in one of the city's oldest neighborhoods, Colonia Libertad, adjacent to the San Ysidro border crossing.

The victims' identities weren't immediately available, and it was unclear how many were wounded. The assailants fled the scene.

The dead officer worked for a section of the Federal Preventive Police that patrols highways, said Ernesto Álvarez, a spokesman with the state Attorney General's Office.

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Residents left shaken by ambush
One family hid as gunfire erupted
By Anna Cearley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

September 16, 2006

TIJUANA – A day after assailants opened fire on a restaurant where police were eating, killing one officer and two other people inside, Armando Scott brushed the broken glass from his shot-up car, which had been parked nearby.

“I'm an ex-Marine, and I've been in Beirut, and I was in Desert Storm, and I've seen this stuff before,” said Scott, a U.S. citizen, as he surveyed the bullet holes riddling his 1989 Mercury Cougar.

Scott, 47, of Chula Vista said he was spending time with his wife in Tijuana, where they also have an apartment, when the attack took place. Mexican authorities said about 20 assailants ambushed people in the Mi Chante restaurant across the street. As the family hid in the apartment, at least 10 bullets passed through Scott's parked car.

The gravity of the Thursday evening attack was sinking in yesterday for residents of the neighborhood near the San Ysidro port of entry, for others in Tijuana, and across the border.

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Co-workers mourn woman slain in Tijuana
By Anna Cearley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

September 19, 2006

The U.S. woman killed Thursday night when a group of men opened fire at a restaurant in Tijuana has been identified as Shaleece Louise Santiago, who worked at a Chula Vista Wal-Mart.

Santiago, 30, and a waitress were apparently innocent victims in an attack on a group of police eating at the restaurant, Mexican authorities said.

Lorena Blanco, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, said yesterday that Santiago, who was married to a Mexican national, was from El Cajon.

Employees of the Chula Vista Wal-Mart at 1150 Broadway said that more than 100 of Santiago's colleagues attended a memorial service for her in Tijuana over the weekend.

“Everybody here is really hurt by her loss,” said Marian Wolover, a store employee. “She was a beautiful person inside and out. She was helpful and a very hard worker.”

The attack at the Mi Chante restaurant also killed a federal police officer. Four police and diners were wounded.