Police Officer Goes Missing after Shootout in Mexico

MEXICO CITY – A police officer disappeared following a shootout in Apatzingan, a city in western Mexico, where gunmen murdered two other officers and five civilians, Michoacan Gov. Salvador Jara said.

Officers assigned to guard the La Fortaleza de Annunaky ranch failed to return when expected, prompting their commander to send out a patrol car to search for them, Jara said.

The patrol car met up with the other officers halfway to the ranch and the three patrol cars headed back to town.

The officers came across a tractor-trailer loaded with scrap metal and an SUV.

“When they found these two vehicles, the patrol cars started to pass them and that’s when they were attacked by armed men. There is a shootout and they (the officers) head off, find a motorcycle rider and that’s how they sent word (to other officers),” the governor said.

The shootout was over quickly and the gunmen torched one of the patrol cars, “but they didn’t realize that reinforcements were coming,” Jara said.

Officers killed the tractor-trailer’s driver, his assistant and three other civilians, the governor said.

Investigators have not determined whether the men belonged to a criminal organization, Jara said, but he indicated that they may have been members of the Caballeros Templarios drug cartel.

The La Fortaleza de Annunaky ranch belonged to Caballeros Templarios boss Nazario Moreno, who died in a shootout with marines on Jan. 9, 2014.