Two state police officers and two gunmen died in the incidents, which took place in three metro-area municipalities: Guadalajara, Zapopan and Tlajomulco.
In a press conference, Attorney General Gerardo Octavio Solís said the attacks showed that the FGE was having success in “hurting the interests” of organized crime. Any attempt to try and scare the FGE would only “strengthen our resolve to dismantle their operations,” he noted.
The incidents unfolded in this way:
Attack no. 1: The first incident took place on Calle Juan de la Barrera in Colonia Álamo Industrial at around 7 a.m. when an armed group assaulted a police pickup patrol. One officer was injured.
Attack no. 2: Just before 8 a.m. a state police investigator was assassinated outside his home in Calle Joel in Tlajomulco’s Fraccionamiento Jardines del Eden. His 9-year-old son was shot in the leg but survived.
Following a quick and massive mobilization by several forces, the responders located a house in the same residential neighborhood that was apparently being used as a safe house and weapons storage facility. As they tried to enter, they were fired on, resulting in a shoot-out lasting for around 90 minutes. Both sides fired off hundreds of rounds while the inhabitants of the house also lobbed grenades at the officers, although none detonated. Two helicopters and an armored vehicle were brought in to provide backup and make sure no one escaped. As adjacent neighbors hunkered down in their homes, authorities evacuated a school located some 200 meters from the incident. The final tally was two gunmen dead, three arrested and one officer injured.
Attack no. 3: At almost the same time as the second attack, armed men assaulted a vehicle used by the coordinator of the Fiscalia’s first-aid centers. She was unhurt but her husband – also an FGE operative – suffered a leg injury. The incident occurred in Colonia El Cerrito in Zapopan.
Attack no. 4: Later in the day another state investigator with the homicide division was murdered in his home in Colonia Villas de San Martín in Tlajomulco. He had been taken by surprise unclothed in his home and had tried to flee the house, but was gunned down in the street, the police report stated.
Solís said he hadn’t ruled out the possibility that more attacks were planned but never carried out. He has not named the group believed responsible for the attacks.