Seven slain in Mexican peace park shooting
Gunmen spraying automatic weapons fire killed seven people at a park that had been built as an anti-violence measure in the besieged Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, authorities said.
The assailants arrived during a football game the park in the Francisco I. Madero neighbourhood and opened fire on Sunday, said Carlos Gonzalez, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state prosecutors’ office.
Two of the people killed had been playing football.
The body of one young man in his blue-and-red football kit lay beneath a huge sign reading Live Better – the federal government’s motto – and Todo Somos Juarez, or We’re All Juarez – the name of a programme to reduce violence and improve life for Ciudad Juarez.
Four people, including a 12-year-old girl, were taken to hospital in critical condition, and one later died of his wounds.
Investigators found 180 bullet casings from the sort of assault weapons typically used by drug gangs, Mr Gonzalez said, though they had not yet identified the perpetrators or a motive.
The park was inaugurated four months ago as part of the Todos Somos Juarez programme.
