CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – Gunmen burst into a drug treatment center in the northern Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez and shot to death 10 people, the second such mass killing this month.
Police say nine men and one woman were killed in the attack just before midnight Tuesday at the Anexo de Vida center in Mexico’s most violent city. Two people were seriously wounded.
Enrique Torres, a spokesman for Chihuahua state police, said Wednesday the identities of the gunmen and the motive for the attack have not yet been established.
But officials have said in the past that drug gangs may be using treatment centers to recruit dealers, or may be targeting them to eliminate rivals.
Most of the victims are believed to have been recovering addicts staying at the facility.
“Why? Why them?” said Pilar Macias, weeping after she identified the body of her brother, Juan Carlos Macias, 39. “He was recovering, he wanted to get back on the right track and they didn’t let him, they didn’t give him a chance.”
“This is going to kill my mother,” Macias said. “She’s very sick and this is going to kill her.”
Macias said the mother had encouraged her son to enter the facility for treatment of his cocaine addiction three months ago.
