BajaNomad

State policeman & wife killed in Maneadero ambush

BajaNews - 9-30-2006 at 12:40 PM

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20060930-9...

"He was among the law enforcement agents whom gunmen attacked in a Tijuana restaurant two weeks ago"

September 30, 2006

A Baja California police agent and his wife were killed late Wednesday when they were ambushed in their car in a residential neighborhood south of Ensenada. Their 3-year-old daughter was wounded but survived.

The victims were identified as Luis Alberto Espinosa Beltran, 24, and Areceli Gomez Dominguez, 23. He was a member of the State Preventive Police, off duty and unarmed at the time of the 11:30 p.m. attack in El Maneadero, said a statement from the Baja California Attorney General's Office.
The two were found dead inside a burning 2003 Chrysler Cirrus. Firefighters put out the flames, and agents from the State Preventive Police pulled out the girl. She was listed in serious condition yesterday at an Ensenada hospital.

The attack is the latest of a string of assaults on law enforcement officers in Baja California. Five officers in Tijuana have been killed in recent weeks.

Espinosa had been posted in Ensenada, but occasionally was assigned to Tijuana, the statement said. He was among the law enforcement agents whom gunmen attacked in a Tijuana restaurant two weeks ago, said Baja California's attorney general, Antonio Martinez Luna.

– Sandra Dibble

turtleandtoad - 9-30-2006 at 03:04 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Hose A

On the other side of the coin. Take a walk or drive around the police station in Ensenada at shift change. Take a look at the number of cars being driven by uniformed officers with both expired and current California plates on them. Many of them less than 5 years old.


And most of them were probably stolen from California. :o

Hose A

Baja Bernie - 9-30-2006 at 03:48 PM

And the story says he was carrying NO WEAPON--real hard to believe.

The State guys (and most others) have been driving stolen California cars since 1964 that I know of. If all stolen cars being driven by various police agencies and elected leaders were to suddenly stop running it would cause a massive traffic jam.
\
See my u-2-u about Tecate.

TMW - 9-30-2006 at 03:54 PM

KNSD-TV in San Diego in the 90's did a story on the Mexican police at all levels driving stolen CA cars. They ran the license plates of several cars they took video of being driven by police in TJ, both city and federal, and many came up stolen. I'll bet this cop was in bed with the drug people.

turtleandtoad - 9-30-2006 at 04:05 PM

I think he fell out of that bed.

It sounds like they tried twice and succeeded on the second try.

Hose A

Baja Bernie - 9-30-2006 at 04:16 PM

I was in Rosarito last week and all of the cops there had full holsters. Is this only in Ensenada?

Cops are just to darn paranoid to be wandering around undressed. I know. I only broke myself of the habit when I couldn't any longer carry in Baja. We could, quietly, for a long time. Not now and that is why some California cops don't even think of going to Baja.

cop guns

tehag - 10-1-2006 at 03:43 PM

.45's???

A Hard Look

MrBillM - 10-1-2006 at 03:55 PM

With the majority of newer Semi-Auto handguns, it is difficult to tell what caliber they are chambered in. If Hose can tell immediately that they are .45s, he must be really looking close.


Speaking of calibers, earlier this week my wife and I were watching CSI-New York and one of the techs pulled a bullet out of a female corpse saying " this is a 41mm round fired from a pistol". I told my wife, if it had been a 41mm round, the entire upper torso would be gone and if it had been fired from a pistol, the perp would be easy to find because his body would be imbedded in the ceiling of the room.

Bob H - 10-1-2006 at 11:16 PM

Ohhhhhhhhh..... stay away from Baja.... it's so dangerous! Do not venture here.... Bob H

Bedman - 10-2-2006 at 12:03 AM

It's not a 41mm but there is a .41 caliber

Ruger Blackhawks and N-frame Smith & Wesson (S&W) Model 57 both come in .41 caliber. The .41 Remington Magnum was born in the mid-1960s

The .41 Magnum is a superb, and grossly underrated cartridge that can do anything the more famous .44 can do, and maybe a little better. It delivers less felt recoil, shoots slightly flatter and, considering that there are far fewer commercial loads offered, can still provide the competent handgunner with all the horsepower necessary.

210-grain JHP sizzling along at 1,300 feet-per-second (fps) with a 19.5-grain charge of Hodgdon's superb H-110, or a 17.5-grain charge of 2400. Jacketed bullets are offered from 170 to 220 grains, with entries from Speer, Hornady, Nosler and Sierra. You can also get cast lead bullets weighing up to 300 grains, and they are favorites of silhouette shooters.

The .41 Remington Magnum actually does fire a .410-caliber bullet, where the .44 Magnum is a cheater, as its projectile is really .429-inch in diameter. The cartridge case measures 1.290 inches and takes a large pistol primer.

The industry working pressure of the .41 Magnum is 43,500 cup, and guns of modern design can take a pretty stout load, pushing bullets out at over 1,350 fps in some cases. The average muzzle velocity will clock somewhere between 1,175 fps and 1,300 fps, depending upon your specific load and barrel length.



Bedman

[Edited on 10-2-2006 by Bedman]

Well, No Scheisse Senor.

MrBillM - 10-2-2006 at 08:39 AM

Of course, it was "supposed" to be a .41 Caliber. That's what made the elementary error so laughable. These productions have so many Tech Advisors on every subject and, yet, something as basic as that caliber somehow floats through.

As far as it being pretty Easy to tell the caliber of a holstered Semi-Auto, give me a break. With the newer handguns such as the Glock, etc., it would be almost impossible to tell unless your vision is so acute that you could read the lettering. The same holds true for the M1911A1. While I imagine Hose has been carrying his since it was first issued to him in 1919 (given the way Baja "stories" go), I bought my first M1911A1 in 1968 and my last in 1998. Though not as expert as Hose (I guess), I'm pretty familiar with the weapon and I doubt that it would be evident which caliber the holstered weapon was chambered in.

Additionally, far from being rare, at one time the M1911A1s carried in Mexico were almost exclusively .38 Super Auto as was the case in most of Latin America, including Cuba.