Restaurant massacre leaves at least 5 dead including a 12-year-old boy and 21 wounded in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato
- Authorities in Salamanca, Guanajuato, said five people were gunned down and 21 others were wounded in a restaurant massacre Saturday
- At least 10 gunmen arrived in two truck and opened fire inside La Tipica at approximately 9:30pm
- Among the dead victims in Leonardo Ortiz, a 12-year-old boy, who was exiting the restaurant with his family when they got caught in the crossfire
- The killings took place a day after the U.S. government prohibited its employees from traveling to Guanajuato for official business
- The state of Guanajuato was among the most deadliest in Mexico with 2,834 homicides reported in 2019
Five people were killed and at least 21 others were wounded Saturday when a group of gunmen opened fire inside a restaurant in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato.
The shooting came a day after the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City issued a travel alert for government personnel visiting Guanajuato for official business.
The advisory prohibits U.S. government employees from traveling to the area south of and including Highway 45D, Celaya, Salamanca, and Irapuato.
The incident took place at approximately 9:30pm when 10 men got off two trucks, entered the bar in Salamanca and started shooting, Mexican newspaper Excelsior reported.
SEE VIDEO BELOW
Leonardo Ortiz (left), a 12-year-old boy from Salamanca, Mexico, was one of five people murdered by armed gunmen who attacked a restaurant Saturday night. His father, Juan Francisco Ortiz, the family and a friend, a former high school classmate who was also killed, were leaving the restaurant when they got caught in the middle of the attack
Police officer survey the aftermath of a restaurant massacre in Salamanca, a municipality in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, where five people were killed and 21 others were wounded Saturday night
Among the casualties was Leonardo Ortiz, a 12-year-old boy, who was on his way out of the restaurant when he and his family got caught in the crossfire.
No arrests had been reported as of Monday.
His grief stricken father, Juan Francisco Ortiz, shared a heartbreaking video on his Facebook page on Sunday night in which he pleaded for city government officials to release his body.
The distraught parent said his family and a former high school classmate, who was also murdered, visited La Tapica for dinner and had just paid their bill. The group stood around a bit longer because the restaurant had lost its electrical power and the system was down.
Juan Francisco Ortiz, a former police officer, denied earlier reports that surfaced on social media that the shooting had been the byproduct of a dispute between customers.
The state of Guanajuato was among the most deadliest in Mexico with 2,834 homicides in 2019. Authorities reported 293 in the month of January, the most violent month in 20 years
‘I need contact with the prosecutor, with a senator or the president, if he could contact me, because my municipality here could not help me anymore,’ he said. ‘The only thing I am asking is that they release the body of my son Leonardo Ortiz García so that I can cremate him and he can go home, that his family can be with him, that he can be at home. My son was very afraid of many things and being buried alone in a pantheon will terrify my baby.
‘I just need the Public Ministry to release my son so that his father and mother can cremate him and we can have him at home. They will not allow me to cremate my son because my son as well as the other victims are part of an investigation because it was murder,’ Juan Francisco Ortiz said amidst tears.
‘My son is 12 years old. We are not looking for the culprits, we are not look for anything, we do not have anything against anyone. The conflicts that cartels have are between the cartels.’
The restaurant massacre in Salamanca is the deadliest in the city since March 9, 2019 when at least 15 people were killed in an armed attack at Bar La Playa, a strip club.
Federal authorities linked the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel to the planned attack.
Prosecutors said at least seven men participated shooting, and added that the suspects were looking for alleged members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, considered the most powerful criminal organization in Mexico.
The state of Guanajuato was among the most deadliest in Mexico with 2,834 homicides in 2019. Authorities reported 293 in the month of January, the most violent month in 20 years.