Three people have been left dead after a shooting at a beachside restaurant in the resort town of Acapulco, in Mexico’s Guerrero state.
The prosecutor’s office for Guerrero state said two gunmen arrived at Playa Manzanillo around 3:40 p.m., entered the restaurant, and shot and killed two men inside.
Police chased the perpetrators down the beach as they attempted to escape towards the sea. According to the report, it appears that one of the gunmen may have escaped but was seriously wounded by police. The other assailant was fatally shot.
A video posted to YouTube shows beachgoers running to take cover, and police giving chase along the water.
Two 9-mm pistols in the area were found by authorities and seized. The state attorney general’s office will investigate the shooting.
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This is not the first time Acapulco has seen a beachside shooting.
The area has been gripped by gang violence since 2006 when the Mexican government began deploying the military to combat cartel-related violence. Since then, more than 340,000 people have been killed in an escalating war between drug cartels and the government.
Another violent incident happened in Guerrero state on Thursday. Reuters reported that the severed heads of six men were discovered on top of a Volkswagen in Chilapa de Alvarez, with a sign warning others that “This will happen to anyone who messes around.”
That same day, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador alleged that popular media was glamourizing the life of drug traffickers, depicting it as a life full of “beautiful women, property, the latest cars, jewelry, designer clothes, power.”
Two weeks ago, a British businessman was killed in front of his teenage daughter at Playa del Carmen, a popular beach destination in Mexico’s Quintana Roo state.
Early this year, two Canadians were killed and one was detained in connection to a shooting that happened just south of Playa del Carmen.
Lopez Obrador took office in 2018 and is attempting to tackle the wave of violence in his country with social programs that address the root causes of poverty. He asked the U.S. to invest in Mexico’s economic development rather than sending helicopters and arms.
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