Student Killed in TJ Shootout

By R. STICKNEY and NICOLE WARD
Updated 3:06 PM PST, Tue, Jan 5, 2010

Five recent executions in Tijuana, reportedly tied to organized crime, included the death of a teenager who lived in Tijuana and attended a private school in San Diego.

Jose Labastida, a junior at Mater Dei Catholic High School in Otay Mesa, was killed in Tijuana Monday. According to the school's principal, Labastida was killed in a shootout where more than 50 bullets were fired.

Thomas Clayton Beecher, President of Mater Dei, said he doesn't know how many of the bullets hit Labastida.

The killing was one of five separate murders in Tijuana according to ElUniversal.com.mx. The news site reports that shots were fired in an area known as "La Colonia Chaco" when Labastida, whose full name is Jose Fernando Labastida Fimbres, tried to escape from an attempted ordered kidnapping.

Jose Fimbres, as he referred to himself on his Facebook page, is the heir to the Calimax fortune. His grandfather, an entrepreneur, turned a butcher shop into a chain of Mexican warehouse stores that are similar to their U.S. counterparts, Costco.

The newspaper quotes police as saying that Labastida was still alive when he was taken to the hospital but died during treatment.

Among the other killings, a restaurant security guard was shot and killed by men in a passing car in the area of Del Bosque.

A federal police officer told the Spanish-language newspaper that the head of another victim was found in a tunnel next to the Mexicali-Tijuana Highway. The body has not been recovered.

Beecher said Labastida was a great golfer and was hoping to play on the school's team his year. He transferred into Mater Dei last year.

Counselors were on hand at Mater Dei Tuesday to help students cope with the news. A memorial service for Labastida is planned Tuesday night at a church in Tijuana.

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local-b ... 26247.html