El Paso teen reportedly slain in Juárez
By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times
Posted: 05/17/2009 11:31:05 PM MDT

A 15-year-old girl who was reportedly a student at Coronado High School was killed in Juárez during a violent weekend of at least 20 slayings.

Tania Lozoya, who was on the high school softball team, was a bystander attending a birthday party when she was fatally shot on Saturday night, Channel 14-KFOX (cable Channel reported.

Lozoya died at a Juárez medical center after being shot in the neck, Chihuahua state police said in a news release. It did not specify where Lozoya was a resident of.

Two males were hospitalized after they were also wounded during the shooting near Ignacio de la Peña and Brasil streets, police said. Six 9 mm bullet casings were found at the scene by investigators.

El Paso Independent School District spokeswoman Berenice Zubia said Sunday night that Coronado High School's principal had requested extra counselors be sent to the school on Monday to help students dealing with grief.

Zubia added that the district had yet to confirm that Lozoya was a student at the West Side school.

The teen's death was part of a new spree of violence that erupted Friday in the Juárez area.

There were 13 homicides on Friday, six on Saturday and at least two on Sunday.

The slayings included two men found beheaded Friday in the small community of Porfiria Parra, east of Juárez.

State police said Freddy Perez, 29, and David Olivas Aguilera, age unknown, were found handcuffed with their heads nearby.

The drug-related violence was not limited to Juárez.

In Chihuahua City, the Mexican army got into a shootout with two suspected members of La Linea drug organization about 2:45 a.m. Saturday at a home.

Soldiers, who were checking a report about an armed group, stopped a bullet-proof Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Cesar Eduardo Perales Heradia, 29, tried to run on foot but was caught. Two AK-47s and an AR-15 assault rifle were found n the vehicle, military officials said.

Soldiers were then met with gunfire when they went to a house linked to documents in the vehicle. Troops stormed the building by tossing gas grenades and using the just-seized armored vehicle, officials said.

Miguel Angel Salazar Zuany, 60, was arrested. Two .223-caliber rifles and two pistols were seized.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_12393254