7 killed in gun attack in violent Mexican state

AP 8:31 p.m. EDT August 12, 2013


Mexican army vehicles drive past an armed member of a local self-defense group in the western state of Michoacan, a notorious rough area of Mexico. Gunmen killed seven and wounded nine in a shootout that took place in a Michoacan home Monday.(Photo: Gustavo Aguado AP)

Story Highlights

  • Seven were killed Monday in the western Mexican state of Michoacan
  • A gunman burst into a home and opened fire, killing seven and wounding nine
  • At least 47 shots were fired during the incident


MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican officials say gunmen burst into a home in the western state of Michoacan and opened fire, killing seven people and wounding nine.

State prosecutors say the shooting Sunday night in the town of Tuxpan targeted a family that had fled threats from members of organized crime in the state of Mexico.

Officials say at least 47 shots were fired from two high-caliber weapons.

The family had fled in January to Michoacan, which is one of the most violent states in Mexico and the center of a struggling federal government effort to reassert state control.

Authorities say that elsewhere in Michoacan, police found the bodies of two men hanging from a tree in the town of Los Reyes along with a message threatening the community's self-defense group.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/08/12/violent-mexican-state/2646523/