http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/ ... -Slain.php

Three immigrants killed by gunmen near U.S.-Mexico border

The Associated Press
Thursday, February 8, 2007
TUCSON, Arizona
Gunmen stopped a pickup truck full of illegal immigrants, shot several and took the rest captive Thursday in an attack that left at least three men dead and two people wounded.

The ambush occurred along a known smuggling corridor near the U.S.-Mexico border, Pima County sheriff's officials said.

Four or five immigrants had not been found by midday Thursday.

Investigators did not immediately know a motive, but gangs of bandits are known to roam border areas preying on illegal immigrants as they cross into the country. Feuding and kidnapping among smuggling organizations also is not uncommon, sometimes involving demands for ransoms from the immigrants' families.

The immigrants were heading north when four men armed with assault rifles in another vehicle forced the truck to stop, said Rick Kastigar, the Pima County sheriff's criminal investigations chief. During a confrontation, one man was killed, another was shot in the hand — losing several fingers — and a woman was shot in the neck, Kastigar said. Two bodies were later found a few miles north in the truck.

Sheriff's Sgt. James Ogden said the two wounded immigrants were taken to a hospital with "very, very serious injuries."

Two more men who were not injured were taken into custody as witnesses and were questioned by investigators, Ogden said.

Kastigar said the confrontation followed another incident about 12 hours earlier more than 70 miles (112 kilometers) south, in which 18 illegal immigrants were robbed at gunpoint by four heavily armed men wearing ski masks.