Mexico investigating reports of 17 people shot dead during wake | Crime News

Video shared extensively on social media reveals folks lined up in opposition to a wall in Michoacan state earlier than gunshots ring out.

Mexico is investigating stories that round 17 folks have been executed within the state of Michoacan, after a grotesque video confirmed gunmen storming a funeral wake throughout the weekend and dragging mourners exterior to be killed.

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday urged persistence because the chief prosecutor’s workplace investigates what occurred, saying that he hoped “with all of his soul” that the occasions weren’t true.

“We nonetheless don’t have all the knowledge,” Lopez Obrador mentioned throughout his each day morning press convention, including that shell casings have been discovered however no our bodies.

Elevated violence has been reported in some components of Mexico the place rival drug gangs battle for management of trafficking routes and territory [File: Alan Ortega/Reuters]

A video shared extensively on social media confirmed a gaggle of individuals lined up in opposition to a wall, most of them holding their palms behind their heads, earlier than apparently being shot in a barrage of bullets fired by surrounding gunmen.

Mexican media reported the mourners have been killed within the city of San Jose de Gracia, some 200km (125 miles) west of Morelia, the state capital of Michoacan, the place turf battles between rival drug cartels have despatched violence hovering.

The Michoacan chief prosecutor’s workplace late on Sunday mentioned that although no our bodies have been discovered, investigators found firearms cartridges on the web site the place the video was suspected to have been filmed in addition to “cleansing merchandise” in a bag, saying the “web site had just lately been washed”.

The video on social media seems to have been filmed by a close-by neighbour by a window with a excessive vantage level, exhibiting the group of individuals lined up in opposition to a white wall.

A number of gunmen are seen pointing rifles on the purported mourners till gunfire prompts the individual filming to cover for a few seconds.

When the uninterrupted video returns to point out the identical spot on the road once more, the folks can now not be seen and there may be solely smoke and dirt rising within the air.

Violence has elevated in sure components of Mexico the place drug cartels battle for management over trafficking routes and territory to extort residents. Concentrating on funeral wakes has turn out to be a part of the violence in recent times.

The Michoacan chief prosecutor’s workplace mentioned no our bodies have been discovered [File: Alan Ortega/Reuters]

The incident occurred in a area the place the Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) cartel, the New Michoacan Household and Los Caballeros Templarios function and have been preventing turf wars.

Earlier this month, 9 folks have been killed in a single day when gunmen within the northern border metropolis of Ciudad Juarez killed three folks on the wake of a person who died in jail, after which one other six on the similar man’s funeral later within the day.

In January of final yr, gunmen burst right into a wake within the central Mexican metropolis of Celaya and shot useless 9 folks.

Citing official figures, native media reported that in 2021 the state of Michoacan ranked third within the nation for the best variety of homicides, with 2,732 murders.

Nationally, Mexico registered 33,308 homicides in 2021, after the 2 most violent years in its historical past; 34,554 murders have been reported in 2020 whereas 34,690 befell in 2019.