TIJUANA –
Five bodies were found in Tijuana over the past few days, as drug-gang violence continued to rack the city.
The bodies were found between Saturday evening and yesterday morning, adding to a death toll of several dozen in little more than a week, the Baja California Attorney General's Office said.
A shootout Saturday evening along one of the city's main highways left one person dead, four injured and 20 vehicles riddled with bullets. The dead man is a former Tijuana police officer, the Attorney General's Office said.
The wave of violence also has touched Rosarito Beach. A former police officer of that city, César Beltrán Saldivar, was shot to death late Friday night at a taco shop on Bulevar Benito Juarez, said Rommel Moreno Manjarrez, Baja California's attorney general.
A man and a woman were wounded in that shooting. The woman remains in a hospital, but the man disappeared while in the custody of two municipal police officers, Moreno said. The officers are in jail after they refused to answer questions about the man's disappearance.
Moreno said Beltrán, who resigned in March from Rosarito Beach's police force, was a suspect in the September 2007 killing of Samuel MartNnez Espinoza, the assistant police chief of Rosarito Beach.
In Tijuana yesterday, the body of a man whose hands and feet were bound was found near an industrial park where eight bodies were found last week. The unidentified man was found about 3:30 a.m. yesterday. He had been shot to death, and a note was attached to his body from one of the feuding drug gangs, the Attorney General's Office said.
Authorities are investigating the discovery of two other bodies in the city yesterday afternoon, but they have not determined whether those deaths are linked to the cartel violence.
On Sunday, three bodies were found.
The first was inside a pickup in front of a Burger King on Bulevar Insurgentes about 6:20 p.m. Carlos Araiza Velasco, 40, was found dead in the driver's seat. Another person and a girl were injured in the shooting, the official said.
About 10:45 p.m. Sunday, a father and son were fatally shot outside a home in Colonia de la Amistad. Ernesto Irigollen Salazar, 26, was found dead at the home, while his father, Armando Irigollen, whose age was unavailable, died at a hospital.
Saturday's shootout started about 6 p.m. on Bulevar Insurgentes near Parque Morelos. Nearly three hours later, police officers were still finding late-model trucks and sport utility vehicles with bullet holes on Via Rapida, a main thoroughfare, and on nearby streets. Several of the vehicles contained police equipment, including radios, bullet-resistant vests and lights and sirens.
The former Tijuana police officer was identified as Herson GarcNa Esquer, who was shot to death while wearing a bullet-resistant vest. He was found in the passenger seat of a Toyota Tundra pickup near Parque Morelos, the Attorney General's Office said.
Twenty weapons, including 18 assault rifles and 2,000 rounds of ammunition, were collected by authorities after the shootout. They also found 245 spent casings. Five people have been taken into custody, and four others are being questioned by authorities. At least seven of the 20 vehicles had California license plates, officials said.
Jose Jimenez: (619) 293-1865; jose.jimenez@uniontrib.com
