Gunmen kill 12 people in Mexico bar after kidnapping women, children
AP
Friday
May 10, 2020 at 5:52 PMMay 10, 2020 at 5:52 PM
A woman rides a bike in the early hours of Friday after a woman in the early hours of Friday spoke to the press outside a hotel where gunmen kidnapped her and her children, leaving her family traumatized at an intersection in the city of Xalapa, Michoacan, Mexico. The gunmen took the children and a woman from the neighborhood at gunpoint. Two others are in critical condition. The bodies of a man and a girl were found earlier Friday in a house where the gunmen held them hostage. The victims’ bodies were discovered at a house on the side of the road, in the Xalapa district, where armed men wearing ski masks and armed with guns and a bomb-like device were seen taking the victims. The bodies of three other children were found in a house, with the children’s mother having been taken captive the morning before. As a result of the attack, Mexico’s government has declared a state of alarm to help citizens dealing with a crisis caused by an increase in crime and violence.
On Friday, May 9, 2020, at about 4 a.m., a van pulled up to a hotel with a sign that said “Hotel Xalapa,” and the doors flew open. Inside was a man holding a rifle, his legs propped up on the floor, and four other armed men. They asked for the hotel’s manager. About 20 minutes later, they told him that they were kidnapping his housekeeper, his daughters and his 11-year-old son. The young man, who is his wife’s cousin, called a cousin over, who in turn called his wife in the U.S. The woman, and about 14 children who were in the room with her, were not told about the kidnappings until they arrived at the hospital where she was being treated.
A woman rides her bicycle on the streets of the city of Xalapa, Michoacan, Mexico, after gunmen kidnapped a woman and her children, and held them hostage. Michoacan state Gov. Francisco Vega said in a statement that gunmen had taken the children and a woman from the neighborhood at gunpoint