Suspected Gang Members Kill Police Chief in Western Mexico

A police chief in the western Mexican state of Jalisco was killed in an attack by suspected members of an organized crime gang, officials said.

According to police spokespersons, the police chief of the town of Poncitlan, Bernardo Garcia, was killed Friday by a group of assailants who arrived on the scene in a van.

The gunmen got out of the vehicle and attacked the police chief outside his home in Zapopan, a city that is part of the Guadalajara metropolitan area.

Garcia died at the scene, while a man accompanying him at the time was unharmed in the attack.

Forensic experts collected spent cartridges from AK-47 automatic rifles at the scene. No arrests have yet been made.

Poncitlan is located near a region where a turf battle has been raging between the Jalisco Nueva Generacion and Los Caballeros Templarios gangs, according to the Jalisco state Attorney General’s Office.

That struggle has left at least 30 dead in the first few weeks of 2013 and prompted Jalisco state police and Mexican army troops to begin patrolling roads in that area of the country.

Published in Latino Daily News