By Marisela Ortega Lozano
El Paso Times
JUAREZ, Chihuahua — Three Cereso corrections officers were killed in Juarez late Saturday, part of a rash of killings across the city and area over the weekend.
Police officials said the guards were ambushed while riding in a car in the middle of Feldespato Street and Camino Real Boulevard in the Los Ojitos neighborhood.
Chihuahua state officials said 62 bullet casings were recovered at the scene.
The guards returned fire with their weapons but were overtaken by their attackers who fled the scene, Adrian Sanchez, Juarez police spokesman, said in a telephone interview.
Those killed were identified as Luis Felipe Alvarado Fierro, Josc Carlos Villalobos Vcsquez, and Octaviano Acosta, all 30 years old.
The triple killings occurred two days after Chihuahua officials raided Juarez and Chihuahua city prisons looking for weapons, drugs and banned products inside the facilities.
Authorities seized ammunition, firearms, drugs, and also transferred inmates considered dangerous to prisons in Sinaloa and Veracruz, state officials said.
On Saturday, a woman was found beaten to death inside her own home in Hacienda de las Torres neighborhood, officials said.
Claudia Angclica Tena, 30, was reportedly killed by her common-law husband, Giovanni Jimcnez Gastol, 23, after a heated argument. The man turned himself in to authorities and confessed to his alleged crime.
A Chihuahua attorney generalcs spokesman could not be reached for comment on the report.
Early Sunday, a man was killed in the middle of a street, Chihuahua prosecutors said.
Fabicn Mcrquez Renterca, 18, was found dead at Tecnolcgico Avenue and Josc Iturrigaray Street within Campestre Virreyes neighborhood. State investigators retrieved 15 bullet casings from the scene.
A man in a rural town near Juarez was also shot and killed, officials said.
Cescreo Valadez Rojas, 24, was gunned down in Francisco Villa Street in San Isidro, officials said.
Investigators recovered 15 bullet casings from the scene.
Another man was shot with a .40-caliber hand gun inside a parked car at Francisco Sarabia and Sinaloa Streets within Francisco Sarabia neighborhood.
A 30-year-old man was stabbed to death inside a home at Pez Aguja and Lamprea in the Anapra area, officials said.
There were at least three other killings within the weekend.
Still, Chihuahua Gov. Ccsar Duarte said crime and homicides are down in Chihuahua state and Juarez.
“Public safety is improving throughout our state as (the) federal government can attest,” Duarte said in a written statement. “Homicides are declining in Juarez and Chihuahua.”
Copyright 2011 El Paso Times