Police officers arrive at the area where a shooting occurred in Mexico City, Mexico, June 26, 2020. REUTERS / Henry Romero
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The Mexico City police chief was shot and wounded and two of his bodyguards were killed in a dramatic assassination attempt early Friday that quickly blamed one of Mexico’s most powerful drug gangs, the Jalisco New Generation Poster (CJNG).
The city’s chief of public security, Omar García Harfuch, suffered three gunshot wounds when he and the bodyguards were fired upon in an exclusive neighborhood in Mexico City just before dawn.
About three hours later, apparently from his hospital bed, Garcia attributed his injuries and the death of two bodyguards on Twitter to a “cowardly attack” by the CJNG, a gang recognized as one of the most violent in the country.
A third person, a woman apparently on her way to work, also died in the shooting, city authorities said.
The security camera images shown on Mexican television show a group of armed men getting out of the back of a truck, as well as separate images of the police advancing towards heavy shots.
Television footage of what was apparently Garcia’s armored SUV showed a vehicle riddled with bullets by police.
Ernestina Godoy, Mexico City’s attorney general, said 12 people had been arrested in the attack.
Residents said there was heavy shooting for several minutes during the attack in Lomas de Chapultepec, where many wealthy people live and the location of ambassadorial residences.
Police converged on the area west of the city, which is rarely affected by violence that has affected many parts of the country, especially the poorest, in recent years.
Reports by Paulo Prada, Raúl Cortés and Dave Graham; editing by John Stonestreet, Steve Orlofsky and Diane Craft
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