Running battle with police kills 10 gunmen in Nogales
By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.24.2008
NOGALES, Sonora — Just minutes after Fausto Hopkins arrived Thursday morning for work at his food service company in the heart of Nogales, gunfire crackled outside the building.
As he huddled for safety behind closed doors in his office at about 6:30 a.m., Hopkins counted more than 200 gunshots. Many were right outside his business.
Hopkins was listening to the beginning of a deadly shootout and chase between heavily armed organized-crime gunmen and Mexican law-enforcement officers that sped through the city streets just a couple of miles from the border.
The rolling gunbattle went past supermarkets and malls and down side streets before ending in an industrial park.
That's where a vehicle full of men with AK-47 rifles and grenades was hit by police gunfire, went out of control and flew off an embankment. The vehicle crashed into the brick wall of the state prison, killing four of the six occupants and bringing an end to the chase.
A total of 10 gunmen were confirmed dead by Mexican officials. Three bystanders were injured, one of whom was in the hospital after being shot in the pelvis, said Arturo RamÃ*rez Camacho, Nogales, Sonora's, police chief. At least two officers were hurt but not seriously, RamÃ*rez said.
"It was something terrible," said Hopkins. "It was something totally unexpected."
Violence growing
Unfortunately for Hopkins and other Nogalenses, the shootouts are becoming more common every day.
Thursday's incident is the latest example of a deadly gunbattle occurring during daylight hours and near heavily frequented places in Nogales, Sonora — where drug cartels are battling for prized smuggling turf and Mexican law enforcement is trying to clamp down on their activity.
There has been a spike in homicides this year in Nogales — 76 through September, surpassing the 2007 total of 52 and more than doubling the 2006 total of 35. Most of them have been attributed to drug cartel-fueled violence.
The unprecedented bloodshed landed the city on the U.S. State Department's updated travel alert for Mexico that was released Oct. 14. The alert — which warns travelers about dangerous situations but doesn't instruct them not to go — put Nogales alongside notoriously dangerous cities such as Ciudad Juarez, Tijuana and Nuevo Laredo.
It mentioned Nogales as one of the cities that "recently experienced public shootouts during daylight hours in shopping centers and other public venues," which would describe Thursday's gunbattle.
At Hopkins' company, known as Superior Food Service in the United States, stray bullets hit his building, his personal car and four of the company's delivery trucks, causing an estimated $5,000 in damage, he said.
Hopkins, who owns the business with his two sons, said he felt fortunate — he could have found himself in the crossfire had he arrived a few minutes later. "I don't care about the monetary losses, that's the least of my worries," Hopkins said.
That doesn't mean he and other business owners in the border city aren't getting fed up with the ongoing violence. One of the gunmen died on the driveway of Hopkins' business, the blood stain still visible in the afternoon. "We feel very insecure," Hopkins said.
Started near city sports park
The events began when state police officers stopped an SUV on Avenida Tecnológico, in front of the Unidad Deportiva, a city sports park, RamÃ*rez said.
While making the stop, people in another vehicle, a Chevrolet Avalanche, opened fire on the state police officers.
Those gunmen drove around the corner, in front of Superior Food Service building and waited for police, opening fire on them when they came around the corner. Here, one gunmen was killed and another wounded.
The gunmen sped off southwest on Periférico Luis Donaldo Colosio, past the Soriana supermarket to the west and the Nogales mall to the east. They were followed by state, federal and municipal police, RamÃ*rez said.
Another shootout, apparently involving the SUV that had been originally stopped by officers, took place further to the southwest, where two gunmen were killed and the three innocent people were injured, RamÃ*rez said.
The chase involving the Avalanche continued onto a side street near Colonia Las Bellotas and onto a street that goes past the state prison and the industrial park. Here, the gunmen threw grenades at the officers.
It ended when police gunfire hit the Avalanche, causing the driver to lose control and crash into the prison wall. Four were dead at the scene. Two injured gunmen were arrested.
It was unclear where the other three gunmen died, but the incident involved a total of four vehicles with gunmen aboard, RamÃ*rez said.
Police seized four vehicles, two grenades, five rifles and six handguns. The chase involving the Avalanche lasted about 20 minutes, he said.
No claim of victory
Even though no police officers died in the shootout, RamÃ*rez stopped short of calling Thursday's gunbattle a victory.
"It's obvious it's a war but to talk about victories when it puts the residents at risk, I think that's difficult," RamÃ*rez said. "How many people were innocently leaving their houses for work and school and all of sudden, they are at risk in a shootout?"
When asked if the shootout will cause even more concern among prospective U.S. tourists who are already worried about travel through Nogales due to the State Department alert, RamÃ*rez echoed what other city officials have said: The battles only affect police and those involved in the drug trade.
"It's true there is a problem in this city, this state, this country that we can't hide," RamÃ*rez said. "But, it's nothing that puts people who are coming for other activities at risk."
But, even Manuel Hopkins, the son of Fausto Hopkins, who lives in Nogales, Ariz., acknowledged that with each new incident, it changes the way people behave.
"You have to be more cautious from now on," Manuel Hopkins said. "We don't feel targeted, but you can be in the wrong place at the wrong time, like my dad today."

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