Today’s headlines may focus mostly on the coronavirus epidemic but that doesn’t mean all is quiet and well on Guadalajara’s pubic security front.
Midday diners at a laid back Mexican-style restaurant in the plush Puerto de Hierro neighborhood dived under their tables when an attempted kidnapping turned into a shootout, resulting in one fatality and several injuries.
According to witness reports, a commando of at least four vehicles drew up outside the Otates Restaurant on busy Avenida Acueducto, at the intersection with Avenida Patria and only a stone’s throw from the upscale Andares shopping mall. The testimony suggests that up to a dozen men, some of them wearing Army-style bullet-proof vests, descended from the vehicles, two of which they left in the valet parking zone.
At least three of the heavily armed individuals then stormed into the restaurant, and, according to witnesses, headed straight for a male diner, whom they tried to remove by force.
Their target, however, was accompanied by an armed bodyguard seated in another part of the restaurant. He drew his weapon and started to fire at the assailants, along with a conscientious off-duty Zapopan police officer who happened to be dining at the restaurant.
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