A 24-year-old man was shot in the back of the head and killed Saturday evening after a vehicle pursuit ended in a crash in Ejido Pachuca, a rural community in the Valle de Mexicali. Authorities identified the victim only as Luis Antonio.
Municipal police, state security forces, and criminal investigators responded to a food establishment in the Granados neighborhood around 7:26 p.m. on July 4. Firefighters pronounced the victim dead inside the crashed vehicle at the scene.
Killing Linked to Soccer Match Brawl
Investigators believe the shooting was connected to an earlier brawl at a local soccer match. During that altercation, several masked individuals attacked people with bats, leaving at least one person hospitalized with injuries.
The sequence of events appears to have started at the sporting event before escalating into a vehicle pursuit through the agricultural area east of Mexicali’s urban core. Ejido Pachuca sits roughly 30 kilometers east of downtown Mexicali, in the farming flatlands that stretch toward the Colorado River delta.
Multiple Agencies Respond
Multiple law enforcement agencies secured the scene and opened a homicide investigation. The FGE (Fiscalía General del Estado, or State Attorney General’s Office) is expected to lead the case.
The killing was one of at least two fatal shooting incidents in the Mexicali area on July 4. In a separate event in urban Mexicali, a municipal police officer was detained after a fatal shooting during a police pursuit. That case involved different circumstances and a different location from the Valle de Mexicali killing.
The Valle de Mexicali, home to farming communities and ejidos spread across the desert east of the city, has seen periodic violence in recent years. In October 2024, a body with signs of foul play was found in bushes near a highway in the same Ejido Pachuca area, according to local media reports at the time.
Authorities have not announced any arrests in connection with Luis Antonio’s death. The investigation remains open. This story was first reported by Punto Norte.