A small-town police chief in southern Mexico was shot to death by dozens of vigilante-like "community police" who burst into his office and tried to "arrest" him for alleged links to a criminal gang.
A leader of the community police, Eliseo Villar, said today that police chief Miguel Gutierrez opened fire on the men who were trying to detain him in the village of Tlacoachistlahuaca, where he commanded the municipal police force.
Villar said the men, who were from the nearby town of Cochoapa, returned fire, killing Gutierrez. Both towns are in southern Guerrero state.
They had accused Gutierrez of hiding as many as five bodies in clandestine burial pits.
It is unclear whether community police are authorized to detain public servants. Guerrero state gives such groups some law enforcement powers, but only in their own communities and for minor crimes.
