2 EP health-care workers slain in Juarez identified
Times staff report
Posted: 11/23/2008 11:14:06 AM MST



Related: Find more on the violence in Juárez.

A man and a woman who worked as health-care profesionals in El Paso that were shot multiple times and killed Saturday afternon in Juarez have been identified.

Chihuahua State Police identifed them as physician's assistant Roberto Martinez, who worked hrough the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center's Paul Foster School of Medicine, and Ruth Velasco, who was an intensive-care unit nurse at Thomason Hospital.

Mexican police at about 12:15 p.m. Saturday found the bodies of the man and woman in a gray 2004 Kia Amanti riddled with bullets at Boulevard Cuatro Siglos between Hermanos Escobar and Pérez Serna. Police said the car had U.S. plates.

Martinez and Velasco were in Juárez attending the funeral of Velasco's sister, who was killed in a homicide last week.

A statement from Chihuahua state police said that as many as 20 shell casings were found at the crime scene and that the victims were killed by gunshot wounds.

Investigators at the scene discovered what appeared to be AK-47 shell casings, which were sent for analysis to the Ballistic Forensics Laboratory in Juárez.

Police said the victims were transferred to the city morgue, where autopsies were expected to be conducted.

Police did not indicate whether suspects had been identified in the killing.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_11057191