SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Mex. – As the public prepared for celebration on the eve of Mexican Independence Day, the day took a horrific turn in San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico. Authorities say a gunman in a dark colored Jetta shot Police Chief Francisco Vazquez Bustamante on his drive home Monday.The police chief was headed back from a city event when he pulled over to the side of this road on this street and shot him in his car. It was Vazquez’s last day on the job when he was shot five times in the legs and torso and once in the head before police arrived. Amid the latest violence, city officials credit Vazquez for keeping the city safe over the past three years of his service.
City Secretary Martin Ortega said, “In the state of the government the last 9 months we were number one safest city in Sonora.” Ortega says Vazquez is the main reason the city has remained so safe over the last three years. As the community gears up for the largest Mexican celebration of the year, they are shocked to hear what happened in what most say is a tranquil city of Sonora.
“Well I just heard gunshots but people didn’t realize what happened until police showed up,” said a local street vendor. “I’ve been here for 50 years and I’ve never had a problem,” added a local resident.
City officials say the assassination attempt is the only one of its kind during Vazquez’s service. Although eerily similar to an incident in 2012 when the police chief prior to Vazquez was shot and killed outside his home.
“We highly condemn what happened to our chief of police,” said Ortega. Vazquez was transferred to Yuma Regional Medical Center before he was flown to an undisclosed hospital in Phoenix where officials say he is in critical but stable condition.