Two Police Academy Officials, Federal Police Officer Shot in Mexico

CANCUN, Mexico – Two police academy officials from western Mexico and a Federal Police officer were shot several times in the hotel zone in the Caribbean resort city of Cancun in an apparent fight, state prosecutors said.

The shooting occurred around 3:00 p.m. Saturday in the parking lot of the Teatro de Cancun, the Quintana Roo state Attorney General’s Office said.

A red alert was issued for all security forces, including the army.

Two of the wounded men are officials of the Western Regional Public Safety Academy in Morelia, the capital of Michoacan state, said the Federal Police coordinator in Quintana Roo, Hector Gonzalez Valdepeña.

The police academy’s director, Gerardo Enrique Escarcega Hernandez, 57, deputy director, Aaron Ramirez Vargas, 40, and Federal Police officer Enrique Escarcega Mata, no age given, were wounded in the incident.

Escarcega Hernandez is the father of the Federal Police officer.

“A person who said he was a soldier attacked them with a firearm apparently because the son was urinating in the street. That’s what eyewitnesses stated,” Gonzalez Valdepeña said.

Escarcega Hernandez and Ramirez Vargas are listed in stable condition, while the Federal Police officer, who underwent surgery, is in serious condition, Gonzalez Valdepeña said.

Investigators found six bullet casings at the shooting scene, Quintana Roo Deputy Attorney General Carlos Arturo Alvarez Escalera said.

“We’ve questioned the wounded, they said it was a fight,” the deputy state AG said. “The eyewitnesses said a woman was with the assailant.”