BajaNews - 9-15-2006 at 07:32 PM
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20060915-9...
By Sandra Dibble and Anna Cearley
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.
Witnesses told police that the assailants fired from the street at the Mi Chante restaurant, and that police inside the restaurant returned fire, said
Raúl Gutierrez, another spokesman for the state Attorney General's Office.
After the attack, portions of the normally bustling neighborhood were sealed off with police tape as dozens of heavily armed officers searched the
area and residents gathered around the crime scene.
The ambush comes less than two weeks after the badly beaten bodies of two state preventive officers were found in Tijuana. One was left with a police
credential pinned to his head. No arrests have been made in that crime.
Organized crime groups, such as the region's dominant Arellano Félix drug group and their rivals, are typically associated with crimes such as these.
Some observers of drug trends believe more police might come under fire after a string of arrests of the Arellanos' top leaders, the most recent being
the detention by U.S. authorities of suspected kingpin Francisco Javier Arellano Félix.
Police officers are targeted by organized crime here for various reasons. Those who receive money from drug groups are killed for betraying the
organization or failing to meet their obligations. Sometimes there is no direct connection, and criminal groups will kill an officer as a way of
intimidating others into leaving them alone.
Residents left shaken by ambush
SUNDOG - 9-17-2006 at 08:05 AM
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.
The ambush, which had the hallmarks of organized crime, targeted the officers, Mexican authorities said, but it claimed the lives of two others,
including a 30-year-old U.S. citizen dining at the restaurant.
U.S. Consulate spokeswoman Lorena Blanco could not confirm the victim's first name, which Mexican authorities said was Sheila, but said the last name
was Santiago and that she was from El Cajon.
Also killed in the attack were a waitress, 22-year-old Lilia Lizeth Maldonado Ochoa, and Federal Preventive Police Officer Francisco Vallejo
Fernández, 40.
Four other people were injured, including a state preventive police officer. The incident started when several people entered the restaurant and began
shooting at the officers, according to the state's secretary of public security, Victor de la Garza Herrada.
Mexican authorities provided few answers yesterday at a news conference that included the region's highest-ranking officials from numerous police
agencies.
The officer who died was with the federal agency, but he had been eating with 10 officers from the State Preventive Police, whose cars were still
parked near the modest restaurant yesterday.
De la Garza said the attack may have been in retaliation for the coordinated anti-crime efforts of the region's many police agencies.
“One of the lines of investigation is due to the good results that inter-agency public security has provided,” de la Garza said.
No one at the news conference identified any possible suspects.
The Arellano Félix organization is the predominant drug cartel in the region, and it has made alliances with certain police to consolidate their power
here. But rival groups are said to be attempting to muscle into the area after a string of arrests of the Arellanos' top leaders.
“We don't discount that it could be people from outside,” de la Garza said.
Scott said he didn't see anything during the attack because the couple's apartment doesn't face the restaurant, but he recognized the sound of gunfire
as that of automatic rifles.
Investigators found about 500 spent cartridges, de la Garza said, some from the officers shooting back at the attackers.
“My wife thought it was firecrackers, but I knew,” said Scott, who said he's originally from Panama. “I called over the grandchildren and counted them
to make sure we had everybody inside, and we locked everything up.”
The gunfire lasted about a minute, he estimated. His wife, who declined to give her name out of fear of being targeted, said that immediately after
the shooting there was silence, and then she heard sobs and screams. They joined their neighbors on a balcony overlooking the crime scene and waited
for help.
Yesterday, residents milled around the restaurant, where chairs and tables were left in disarray after the attack. A large blood stain was visible on
the ground.
“They were shooting like crazy,” Scott said.
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Anna Cearley: (619) 542-4595; anna.cearley@uniontrib.com
Co-workers mourn woman slain in Tijuana
BajaNews - 9-21-2006 at 12:19 PM
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20060919-9...
By Anna Cearley
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.
Attempts to reach Santiago's family were unsuccessful.
Wolover said Santiago began working at the Wal-Mart about a year ago, starting as a cashier and becoming a supervisor in charge of the front-end
cashiers. She was learning how to do the scheduling and to take on more responsibilities, Wolover said.
Wolover said Santiago was killed after working in Chula Vista that day.
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City released a travel advisory to U.S. citizens that same day about the “rising level of brutal violence in areas of
Mexico.” U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza attributed some of the violence to drug traffickers.
Mexican authorities said last week that Thursday's attack may have been in retaliation for law enforcement's work in combating crime.
Rival drug groups are also challenging the region's Arellano Félix drug cartel and their traditional ties to certain police groups.