Gunmen fire on truck full of immigrants, killing two
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TUCSON — Men opened fire on a pickup that was hauling 23 suspected illegal immigrants early Friday, killing two and wounding another, authorities said.
Officials believe the gunmen thought the driver was carrying drugs. Border Patrol agents tracking footprints found two men with three high-powered weapons near the shooting site, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said.
Rosario Humberto Araujo-Monarrez, 21, and Martin Esrain Flores-Gaxiola, 18, from the Mexican state of Sinaloa, admitted firing into the truck and were charged with two counts each of homicide and 21 counts each of attempted homicide, sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Chief Richard Kastigar said.
The shootings occurred about 5 a.m. on a rural road near Green Valley, a retirement community about 25 miles south of Tucson.
Dupnik said one witness heard the driver yell at the shooter: “I don’t have any drugs. I have people.” After the driver sped through the hail of bullets, the immigrants ran into the desert. Border agents found 20 uninjured immigrants, including some children, from Mexico’s southern Chiapas state.
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