Nogales police commander shot in his pick-up
By Cesar Barron
Published Friday, February 12, 2010 9:31 AM MST
Several gunfights erupted early this week in Nogales, Sonora leaving three dead and more than 10 injured including the commander of the municipal police department’s northern zone.
Gunmen burst into the Herraduras Restaurant leaving one dead in their wake.
Also, a hotel was completely destroyed in a fire sparked by explosives and the front façades of two more hotels were riddled with bullets.
At dawn Tuesday morning, one body was found wrapped tightly in a blanket and another man was assassinated outside a restaurant where another individual had been shot and killed the night before.
At about 10 p.m. Monday, on Cinco de Febrero and Maclovio Herrera streets, Commander Daniel Bautista Borboa was attacked by gunmen as he traveled with his wife and daughter in a pick-up truck.
He was shot in the leg and arm and officials say Bautista Borboa’s life was saved by a bullet-proof vest he was wearing. Bautista Borboa purportedly put his arms around his wife and daughter to protect them. The pair escaped injuries.
Bautista Borboa was taken by ambulance to a Nogales, Sonora hospital and later transported across the border to Carondelet Holy Cross Hospital and subsequently airlifted to a Tucson hospital.
Just after 10 p.m. on Monday, shots were reported at the Sahuaro Hotel on Ruiz Cortinez Street. Police discovered smoke coming from the interior and later spotted about 10 persons, some of whom had sustained burns, fleeing from the hotel yelling for help.
Witnesses said many of those were migrants staying in the hotel waiting to be taken illegally into the United States.
Some were transported by ambulance to local hospitals while others were taken in a police patrol vehicle as first responders’ resources became strained.
Firefighters were called to the scene to extinguish the blaze under police protection. It is believed whoever started the fire used grenades while others riddled the hotel with AK-47s. At least 25 bullet holes were counted on the hotel wall and investigators recovered 57 shell casings.
Outside the hotel, police spotted a green Ford Contour sedan with three bullet holes in the windshield. Lying on the side of the front left tire, they found a man who had been shot in the head.
He was taken to General Hospital where he died shortly after midnight. The victim had no identification.
At about 11 p.m., inside Herraduras Restaurant on the south side of the city, Martin Salcedo Hernandez, 44, was gunned down while dining with members of his family following the funeral of his mother.
Two other persons were injured, Francisco Manuel Hernandez, 20, and Claribel Molinares Noriega, 24. Salcedo Hernandez died on the operating table at General Hospital.
State police investigators found 14 AK-47 shell casings inside the popular eatery.
The violence did not end there. At 11:50 p.m. shots were fired on the front facade of the Elias Hotel on Ruiz Cortinez Avenue near the Buenos Aires neighborhood.
Police counted 69 bullet holes, but no one was injured. A worker at the hotel told police that a vehicle drove up, several persons got out of the car and began firing on the hotel.
Police then responded to a call a block away at Pancho Villa Hotel on Elias Street, near the border. Again, gunmen fired several shots at the front of the hotel.
At 1:50 a.m. on Tuesday, the body of a man was discovered on Francisco R. Manzo Street in the Los Encinos neighborhood.
