A California couple has been shot and killed while on vacation in Mexico, authorities have confirmed.
The couple, identified by the Michoacan State Attorney General’s Office only as Gloria A., 50, and Rafael C., 53, were gunned down in the western state of Michoacan just before midnight Wednesday night.
The married pair had been travelling in a pickup truck in the municipality of Angamacutiro when they were shot. The woman died at the scene, reports Reuters, while the man died in hospital a short time later.
It was not immediately clear why or if the couple was specifically targeted.
State prosecutors told Reuters that the woman, who had obtained U.S. citizenship, and the man, who was born in the U.S. to Mexican parents, had family and a home in Angamacutiro.
Magdalena Guzmán, a press officer at the Michoacán prosecutor’s office, told the New York Times the couple arrived in Mexico late last month to spend the holidays with family.
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According to the outlet, authorities learned of the attack after security officers found their vehicle ridden with bullets on an Angamacutiro street.
The prosecutor’s office said that the couple’s licence plate had been registered without a number in the Lázaro Cárdenas neighbourhood. Investigators were collecting ballistic evidence from the scene for analysis.
The killing is considered a step backward in the Mexican government’s pledge to curb organized crime in several regions.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who took office in October, has promised to replicate nationally the success she had as mayor of Mexico City in bringing down the sprawling capital’s murder rate.
But her first two months in office have been marked by an outbreak of cartel violence in several hotspots.
The Canadian government advises tourists to avoid non-essential travel to several states in Mexico — including Michoacan — due to high levels of violence and organized crime.
— With files from Reuters
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