Gunmen killed a 33-year-old Ensenada lawyer and used-car dealer late Monday night near his home in the Villa Fontana neighborhood, a residential area in the city’s southern zone. The killing marks the second fatal shooting in the victim’s immediate family in four years.
Jesús Noriel Valdez Urias was driving near the intersection of Calle Higuera and Calle Olivos just after 11 p.m. on June 30 when a blue vehicle pulled alongside him. Occupants of the vehicle fired multiple rounds, striking Valdez Urias. Red Cross paramedics responded but declared him dead at the scene.
Police Recover Shell Casings, Take Witness Statements
Ensenada municipal police secured the area around the shooting. Agents from the Fiscalía General del Estado (FGE), the state attorney general’s office, collected shell casings and took witness statements before transferring the body to the Semefo forensic facility for autopsy.
No suspects have been identified, and no arrests have been announced. The FGE has opened a homicide investigation.
Father Killed Inside Church in 2022
The case carries a grim family connection. Valdez Urias’s father, Octavio Ulises Valdez Figueroa, was a pastor and lawyer who was shot and killed inside the Precursores del Avivamiento Christian church in Ensenada in February 2022. That case drew attention at the time because the killing took place inside a house of worship.
Whether the two killings are connected remains unknown. The FGE has not publicly stated whether investigators are examining a possible link between the cases. The fact that both father and son, both lawyers, were killed in targeted shootings four years apart raises questions that prosecutors will need to address.
Villa Fontana Location
Villa Fontana sits in Ensenada’s southern residential corridor, roughly a 10-minute drive from the city’s tourist zone along Avenida López Mateos and the waterfront malecón. The neighborhood is primarily residential, home to working families and small businesses.
Ensenada, located about 80 miles south of the U.S. border at San Ysidro, is a popular destination for day-trippers and expats from Southern California. The city has seen periodic spikes in targeted violence tied to organized crime, though attacks on civilians in residential neighborhoods remain relatively uncommon.
The FGE has not released further details about the investigation. This story was first reported by Punto Norte.