EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Authorities in the Mexican border state of Chihuahua say passers-by and a 2-year-old child are among the victims of attacks that left seven dead and another seven injured by gunfire last Sunday.
The shootings took place in the municipality of Guachochi, which is 500 miles south of El Paso and one of Chihuahua’s so-called magical towns frequented by tourists and marathoners.
“Some of the victims were riding vehicles or walking along the El Lobito and Turuseachi neighborhoods when they were struck by bullets from a confrontation between armed civilians,” the Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office said in a statement on Tuesday.
Unknown parties transported five males injured by gunshots to the IMSS clinic in Guachochi, where they later were pronounced dead. Authorities found another two bodies – a 25-year-old male and a 26-year-old female – lying on the street in El Lobito.
Four men and two women, as well as the 2-year-old infant, trickled in with gunshot wounds to local clinics on Sunday, the Attorney General’s Office said.
State police officers and soldiers from a nearby Mexican army based are being deployed to search for the killers. No arrests had been made as of Tuesday morning.
Local news reports said one of the victims was a schoolteacher riding in a vehicle that got caught “in the middle of a fight between rival groups.”
Guachochi is the site for the annual Ultramaraton de los Cañones, a long distance race that attracts runners from the United States, Europe, Mexico and includes Indigenous participants.
It was also the site of a confrontation between rival drug gangs that left eight dead, including an alleged Sinaloa cartel cell leader, in 2023.
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