EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – The local police department in Juarez, Mexico, is mourning the loss of two of its officers who were shot to death late Monday while off-duty near a convenience store.
The agency also is trying to explain why they were killed along with a man who has a criminal history across the border in El Paso, Texas. Juarez news reports, citing unnamed Mexican investigators, said the officers were working as bodyguards for the civilian.
The Municipal Public Safety Secretariat (SSPM) identified the deceased officers as Miguel Eduardo Gallegos Salas, 31, and Rigoberto Pulido Escobedo, 32. Both were assigned to a motorized unit that patrols the commercial district in Downtown Juarez. Pulido had been a municipal officer for 11 years and Gallego for only two.
“The two officers were on their day off and this agency is cooperating with investigative authorities to assist in the resolution (of the investigation). SSPM regrets this event,” the municipal police said in a statement on Tuesday.
Juarez authorities have identified the third victim of the shooting as Ulises Nache Trujillo, of Juarez.
A man by that exact name has a criminal record in El Paso dating back to 2008. That’s when the U.S. Border Patrol apprehended Nache for illegal entry into the United States approximately 1 mile east of the Paso del Norte Port of Entry. He pleaded guilty to illegal entry and a federal judge in El Paso sentenced him to time served while awaiting the outcome of his trial.
Nache was arrested again in 2010 for illegal reentry and sentenced to 150 days in federal custody.
Nache faced alien smuggling charges in November 2010 after Border Patrol agents detected a group of three men and two women make illegal entry into the U.S. at the Rio Grande half a mile east of the Ysleta Port of Entry in El Paso.
Court records show one of the males became combative and border agents had to subdue him with pepper spray. One of the females, a candy vendor from Juarez, allegedly identified Nache as the smuggler of the group.
Records show the case was terminated shortly after a material witness was dismissed by the court.
ProVideo in Juarez, Mexico, contributed to this report.
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