Two employees of Texas Tech were shot and killed in Juarez Saturday, while in a car in a funeral procession.
The funeral procession was for the sister of Ruth Sagredo Velasco, one of those shot Saturday. Velasco's sister, Cinthia Judith Sagredo Escobedo had been shot on Thursday. Shot and killed with Velasco Saturday was Roberto Martinez.
The violence in Juarez has taken well more than 1,000 people since the beginning of the year, but very few deaths have been of El Pasoans. The El Paso Times reported that two people with known El Paso addresses have been killed since September -- Lance Cpl. Gustavo Zubia-Lopez, shot Sept. 10, and Ricardo Miranda, shot Nov. 15.
Tech officials were not immediately able to say how long the two -- Velasco was a nurse practitioner and Martinez was a physician's assistant -- worked for Tech.
Margaret Althoff-Olivas, spokeswoman for Thomason, where Tech doctors and students practice, said she knew the two but did not know how long they had worked at the hospital.
There were no indications from the reports immediately following the shooting why it happened.
ABC-7 reported that Velasco's father also was killed a month ago. [link]
The story quotes Edward Hernandez, Velasco's former divorce lawyer, as saying that "I don't believe that this was some random cartel killing."
Hernandez, the ABC-7 report stated, "said on several occasions Sagredo had voiced fear that a former partner of hers was out to get her and her family."
