An assistant football coach of Mexico first-division team Indios
was shot to death in the violent border city of Ciudad Juarez,
where 2,400 people have been killed this year - most in
drug-related violence.
The body of Pedro Picasso was found early Friday in a shop
that sells cellular telephones, said Jacinto Segura, a spokesman
for the local prosecutor's office. He gave no motive for the
shooting in which a second unidentified person also died from
gunshot wounds.
Picasso, 34, coached Indios de Ciudad Juarez youth teams
since 2005.
"The Indios family is at a loss to express its outrage," the
club said in a statement. "The situation has reached unforgivable
levels. ... He was a good, decent man. Pedro Picasso Garcia was
snatched away by violence in the most vile way only known to
cowards."
While there's no definitive comparison of murder rates in
cities around the world, there's no question Ciudad Juarez is among
the deadliest. The dead this year in the city across the border
from El Paso, Texas, include university professors, an honor
student and waiters caught in the crossfire when their customers
were shot. At least one hospital emergency room has been the scene
of an assault.
Indios brought some good news seven months ago to Ciudad
Juarez when the club reached the semifinals of Mexico's
first-division playoffs before losing to Pachuca.
