Google Translate with a hat tip to Nota Roja for additional details.Three separate shootouts between civilians, and between armed suspects and police ended with a toll of at least two dead including one Zapopan police officer Monday afternoon, according to Mexican press reports.
Ricardo Rubio Gonzalez was shot to death as he dismounted his official vehicle with his partner at about 1340 hrs near the intersection of Avenida Sierra de Mazamitla and calle Teotihuacän in the Pinar de La Calma district. The officers were part of the Miscellaneous Crime division of the Zapopan police department and were conducting an investigation when four armed black hooded suspects opened fire on the two. Witnesses say they were shot with AR-15 assault rifles.
In the second incident at about 1915 hrs the same day, two groups of people in two vehicles began firing on one another near the intersection of calles Arturo Chaires and Guadalupe Sevilla in the Paseos del Sol district.
A Ford Lobo pickup truck was crashed into by a Lincoln pickup truck and the occupants of the Lincoln and another vehicle, a Nissan Altima behind the Ford open fired on the occupants, two men and a woman.
The driver of the Ford sped away from the attack while the occupants of the Lincoln continued their armed assault. Along with way at least two unrelated vehicles were wrecked.
The Ford Lobo arrived at an area private hospital, Las Arboledas, where the driver entered. Reports say one of the victims in the opening assault died at the hospital.
According to witnesses, occupants of the Lincoln pickup launched a 40mm grenade through glass windows into an emergency room. The resulting explosion wounded one attending physician and caused damage to an adjacent operating room.
Following the grenade attack, the driver of the Lincoln pickup truck fled south, ran a traffic light and crashed into another truck overturning it near the intersection of calles Carnero y Galileo Galilei. No injuries were reported in that wreck.
A few blocks away near the intersection of calles San Antonio and Circunvalación Sur in the Las Fuentes district, occupants in the Lincoln were intercepted by police and Mexican Army troops and finally stopped. Three were arrested.
Inside the truck police found seven 40mm grenades, a grenade launcher, three assault rifles, two pistols, nine magazines of various calibers, a radio set for police frequencies, as well as caps and jackets with logos of the Federal Pollice.
Reports are the attacks were commissioned by the Sinaloa crime gang and were part of an ongoing battle for control of drug trafficking routes through Jalisco.