Police Chief Hurt in Morning Ambush in Mexico City

Omar Garcia Harfuch in stable condition, but 'there were deaths and several arrests' after shooting
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jun 26, 2020 12:53 PM CDT
'Cowardly' Ambush in Mexico City Wounds Police Chief
Forensic investigators and police work the scene where Omar Garcia Harfuch was attacked by gunmen in the early morning hours in Mexico City on Friday.   (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Heavily armed gunmen attacked and wounded Mexico City's police chief in a brazen operation that left an unspecified number of dead, Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday. Security Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch was being treated in a hospital but was out of danger. However, "there were deaths and several arrests," she said. Mexico City Attorney General Ernestina Godoy Ramos said there were 12 arrests and that her office was investigating the attack. The police said in a statement that gunmen armed with .50-caliber sniper rifles and grenades exchanged fire with the chief's security detail, per the AP. The statement said two cops were wounded; Harfuch was hospitalized in stable condition. The attack happened around 6:30am on the city's Paseo de la Reforma, in an area where large homes are surrounded by walls and foreign embassies.

Photographs from the scene showed a bullet-riddled black SUV and a high-sided construction truck with a number of rifles in the back that apparently hid the gunmen until the ambush. There was no immediate word on motive or the identity of the attackers, but a number of organized-crime groups operate in the city. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador offered his support and solidarity to Sheinbaum and the city's public security forces. "It has to do without a doubt with the work [Harfuch] is carrying out to guarantee peace and tranquility," Lopez Obrador said. Mexico's federal Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo, who was traveling with the president, condemned what he called a "cowardly" attack.

(More Mexico City stories.)

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