Police caught in cross hairs of Tijuana violence

Cartels are blamed in 12 officers' deaths
By Anna Cearley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

December 4, 2006

TIJUANA – Flower vendor Baltazar Brito was conversing with two nuns near a park just south of the city's tourist strip when a pair of trucks trapped two police cars.

He had a bad feeling, so he grabbed the nuns and pulled them to the ground behind his wooden stand. Seconds later, men with assault-style weapons started shooting at the police.

The gunmen were so close that their spent bullet casings bounced off Brito's stand as the nuns prayed fervently.

The Nov. 9 shooting spared the trio, but an officer who tried to help his colleagues was wounded and died a day later. A fourth officer escaped the shooters, but was abducted and killed the next day.

What makes the recent carnage stand out – creating a perception that lawlessness is rising – is who is being targeted, how they are being killed, and the threat to ordinary residents caught up in the violence.

Twelve law enforcement officers have been killed since September, prompting speculation that some of these homicides are the result of drug gangs competing over police loyalties. City officials attribute the deaths to vengeful neighborhood drug traffickers responding to crime-fighting efforts.

Two officers were ambushed and killed Tuesday. A secretary who was with them also died.