Shooting at anti-violence park kills seven during soccer game

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – Gunmen spraying automatic weapons fire killed seven people at a park that had been built as an anti-violence measure in the besieged Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, authorities said Monday.

The assailants arrived during a soccer game at the park in the Francisco I. Madero neighborhood and opened fire Sunday afternoon, said Carlos Gonzalez, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state prosecutors’ office.

Two of the people killed had been playing soccer.

The body of one young man in his blue-and-red soccer uniform lay beneath a huge sign reading “Live Better” – the federal government’s motto – and “Todo Somos Juarez,” or “We’re All Juarez” – the name of a program to reduce violence and improve life for Ciudad Juarez.

Four people, including a 12-year-old girl, were hospitalized in critical condition, and one later died of his wounds.

Investigators found 180 bullet casings from the sort of assault weapons typically used by drug gangs, Gonzalez said, though they had not yet identified the perpetrators or a motive.

The park was inaugurated four months ago.

Three other people – two men and a 15-year-old boy – were killed on a street in the same neighborhood Monday, although Gonzalez said there was no evidence that the attacks were related.