Two men believed to be police officers killed in Juárez shooting

By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times
Posted: 01/24/2012 10:10:28 PM MST

Two men believed to be Juárez police officers were killed in a street shooting Tuesday afternoon.

The men were riding in a silver Ford Mustang when they were fired upon by gunmen around 3:30 p.m. on Durango Street in the Bosques de Salvarcar area of Juárez, Chihuahua state police said. The car came to a stop when it crashed into a street light pole.

State police identified the men as Hector Rene Martinez Gonzalez, 45, and Carlos Daniel Chairez Hernandez, 40.

Several news outlets reported the men were municipal police officers but Juárez officials could not be immediately reached to confirm that information.

Investigators at the scene counted 48 bullet casings from a .223-caliber weapon and five 9 mm casings.

The shooting is the second fatal attack on law-enforcement officers in Juárez this week and the fifth homicide of a law-enforcement officer this year. On Sunday morning, a member of the Chihuahua state police was shot to death in the south part of the city, prosecutors said.

Jose Luis Ruelas Arriaga, 32, was assigned to the state police investigations division in the city of Cuauhtemoc but was visiting Juárez on vacation, an agency spokesperson said.

In other violence, an unidentified man was fatally shot at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Colinas de Juárez.

And Monday night, four young men were gunned down in the Infonavit Tecnológico area. The men were identified as Jose Luis Juarez Acosta, 16, Francisco Gonzalez Martinez, 17, Jose Andres

Rabelo Orona, 19, and Miguel Angel Robles Vitela, 20.
Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com; 546-6102.

Times reporter Marisela Ortega Lozano contributed to this report.

Two men believed to be police officers killed in Juárez shooting - El Paso Times