A violent gun battle leaves seven U.S. and Mexican citizens injured in a road attack near the bridge connecting Mexico to Texas
- Three Americans and four Mexicans were shot dead on a road in Tamaulipas, Mexico on Saturday
- The shooting took place shortly after two vehicles with twenty people on board were caught in a crossfire between criminal groups
- The victims were taken by ambulance to the Roma Port of Entry in Roma, Texas and transported to two hospitals
At least seven people were injured on a Mexican road near a bridge between the United States and Mexico after being caught in a crossfire between rival criminal organizations.
The victims, three U.S. citizens and four Mexican nationals, were among 20 people traveling aboard a pickup truck and a van to the east-central state of San Luis Potosí early Saturday when they came under fire in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas.
The pickup was hit by an armored vehicle commonly used by the cartel. The attackers then fled.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that agents at the Roma Port of Entry in Roma, Texas, received two Mexican ambulances.
A pickup truck, one of two vehicles carrying 20 U.S. and Mexican citizens, was struck by an armored vehicle on Saturday on a road in Tamaulipas, Mexico, near the Roma-Ciudad Miguel Alemán International Bridge. Seven Americans and Mexicans were taken to hospitals in Texas for treatment
The injured victims were taken to Starr County Memorial Hospital and McAllen Medical Center in Texas after a violent attack in the Mexican border town of Miguel Alemán.
Roma Police Chief Iv Garza told Univision that officers at the scene applied a tourniquet to stop bleeding on a victim’s leg.
The group was processed and rushed to Starr County Memorial Hospital and McAllen Medical Center.
The four Mexican citizens were identified as Orlando Sánchez, 61; Alberto Aguilar, 76; Maria Fuentes, 68; and Joes Aguilar, 71, Telemundo 40 reported.
Texas Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar shared this BorderReport.com that one of the Americans was shot in the right foot and another was wounded in the upper back.
“We know that the injured individuals, including U.S. citizens and lawful permanent U.S. residents, are receiving medical care,” Cuellar said.
Tamaulipas is considered one of the most violent states in Mexico, due to the presence of criminal organizations involved in migrant smuggling, drug trafficking and other illegal activities.
Factions of the Gulf Cartel have clashed following the arrests and extradition of the group’s senior leaders.
A woman sits in one of two vehicles carrying 20 U.S. and Mexican citizens that came under fire Saturday morning in Tamaulipas, Texas
Survivors of a violent gun battle standing near one of two vehicles that crossed from Texas were attacked on a road in Miguel Alemán, a border town in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas
In May, military soldiers were caught on video executing five suspected cartel members in the border city of Nuevo Laredo.
Footage showed the gunmen’s pickup truck crashing into the wall of a store before the military truck chasing them rammed the vehicle.
The men were forced out of the pickup, beaten, dragged across the dirt-covered ground, forced to kneel facing the wall and later shot dead.
The soldiers tried to cover up the scene by reporting that an infantry had been attacked by members of the Cártel del Noreste (Northeast Cartel). They said the troops were inspecting a pickup truck carrying the five victims. During the search, they said the suspects tried to get their weapons back and were killed in a crossfire.
In March, four Americans were kidnapped in that state, two of whom were killed and two rescued, in an incident that sparked tensions between the governments of the two neighboring countries.