Sunday homicides in Guaymas, Empalme and Cócorit; youngest victim was 10 years old
Three armed attacks on Sunday, July 12 resulted in the deaths of nine people in Guaymas, Empalme and Cócorit, near Ciudad Obregon. The first murder victims were in a vehicle traveling on a Guaymas street, and the other two deadly assaults were home invasions.
Family attacked on Guaymas street, three dead
The first homicides occurred at approximately 10:10 a.m. on Josefina Borboa Boulevard in Guaymas, when a vehicle carrying nine family members traveling in a blue Ford Escape came under a withering hail of gunfire from a group of armed assailants in a gray or silver van.
Killed in the attack were 35-year-old Francisco N., his wife Nayeli, 30 and a 10-year-old girl. El Imparcial reported that police suspect that Francisco was the target of the attack.
The other six passengers of the vehicle were taken to the hospital with various injuries, the youngest was a two-year-old child.
Three killed in Cócorit home
The next killings at approximately 4:30 p.m. in the pueblo of Cócorit, a short distance north of Ciudad Obregon in the municipality of Cajeme.
There, three men were shot to death in a home on Isla Huivulai street in Colonia Ampliación Alameda. Police arrived to find their bodies inside the home.
The killings brought the number of homicides in Cajeme to 11 for this month, nearly one a day.
Three murdered inside home in Empalme
And two hours later, a group of armed men entered a home in the Prado Bonito subdivision of the municipality of Empalme and shot to death its three inhabitants.
Evidence was collected at all of the three crime scenes in an attempt to identify the killers.
Sonora travel warning
These incidents illustrate that although the state of Sonora is dealing with a serious COVID-19 outbreak, its levels of violent crime have not abated, especially in the municipalities of Cajeme, Empalme and Guaymas.
We do not recommend travel to any area of Sonora at this time, outside of brief day trips across the border.