Woman loses 3 sons to ongoing violence in Juarez

By Alejandro Martínez-Cabrera \ EL PASO TIMES

A mother seeking justice in the slaying of her son in December suffered a crushing tragedy during the weekend.

Two other sons were killed Saturday in a brutal attack in which they were shot, wrapped in blankets and then set on fire.

The mother of the men, who does not want to be identified, fears that the latest attack on her family may be connected to a complaint filed against Juárez Police Chief Julián Leyzaola and six other municipal police agents who are accused of taking part in the beating death of her son in December.

On Saturday, several men carrying an AK-47 and containers of gasoline broke into a house in the 1900 block of Emiliano Zapata Street in west Juárez and gunned down Andrés Darío Padilla Martínez, 20, and Carlos Omar Padilla Martínez, 14, in front of their five younger siblings.

The killers then wrapped their bodies in blankets and set them on fire, which eventually destroyed the house and everything in it.

The slayings occurred one month after their brother, Jorge Andrés Padilla, 24, was found dead on Camino Real road.

In a complaint filed on Jan. 12 at the Chihuahua state prosecutor's office, two men being investigated for homicide said they were arrested along with Jorge Andrés Padilla and taken to a police station, where they claim Leyzaola and the police officers beat their friend to death.

"We saw when the Chief of Police Julián Leyzaola and the officers that detained us beat Jorge Andrés Padilla until they killed him," the men said in the complaint. "And after killing him, we saw and heard Mr. Julián Leyzaola order the officers to go dump the body at the Camino Real road to get rid of the evidence."

Officials of the police department would not return calls for comment about the complaint.

The mother said she no longer wants an investigation because she fears for the safety of her remaining children.

She said all she wants to do is to bury her sons, who were killed Saturday. But the state prosecutor's office is delaying the return of their bodies.

"I only want all this to be over. I still have five little kids to take care of," the mother said.

State prosecutor's office spokes man Arturo Sandoval said that by regulation, forensic authorities must run a DNA test on every burnt body under their custody to confirm its identity.

"We know by the mother's testimony that they are her children, but since they are burn victims, we must conduct genetic tests to confirm the bodies belong to the persons she says they are," he said.

Sandoval could not say how long it would take forensic authorities to identify the bodies and return them to their mother.

Additional note:

Acusan a policías de Juárez de asesinato