Reports: Rocky Point gun battle kills police officer, others

Posted Jul 19, 2012

Dylan Smith
TucsonSentinel.com

Local media in Mexico have reported several dead, including a police officer, after a rolling gun battle Thursday in the middle of Puerto Peñasco, Sonora. Some reported 4-6 people were killed after shots were exchanged between police and drug traffickers.

The shootout lasted nearly a half-hour, reported NumeroUnoOnline. Police were called around 6 p.m. after shots were fired between at least two vehicles on Fremont Boulevard, a main street in the seaside town, according to Sonora Ahora and De Frente.

Three suspected traffickers were reported killed on the grounds of a school near the Unidad Deportiva sports complex; photos and video posted online showed a dead man laying near a dark gray Chevrolet Avalanche. A white Pontiac Grand Am shown just feet away was also reportedly involved in the shooting. The incident took place next door to a school for special needs children.

Police reportedly chased a third vehicle, a white Dodge pickup, as firing continued. Another suspected drug cartel member, a passenger in that truck, was reportedly killed. Three police officers were reported shot by De Frente, one fatally.

Rifles, handguns and grenades were found near the dead men, De Frente said.

Up to a dozen people were reportedly injured and taken to local hospitals.

"If they're civilians they go to the public hospital for treatment. If they're cartel they go to the army hospital to die," one Puerto Peñasco resident said late Thursday night.

There has "been a turf battle going on for about 2 weeks between cartels," said the resident, who declined to be named.

The resident said that rumors of a dozen or more killed on Fremont Boulevard were circulating in the town, known to many American tourists as Rocky Point.

The resident said he'd heard that gun battles throughout the city may have killed as many as 28 people, but cautioned, "Rumors flourish. Body counts rise."