Tijuana remembers dead police officers

TIJUANA, Mexico, May 1 (UPI) -- Seven Mexican police officers gunned down this week were commemorated at ceremonies in Tijuana.

About 300 people, 100 of them relatives of the slain officers, attended a solemn memorial service Thursday in the courtyard at City Hall, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. The coffins were escorted by an honor guard.

The officers were ambushed and shot at five locations in Tijuana during a 45-minute killing spree Monday night. Investigators said they believe the killers were members of drug cartels.

One arrest has been made -- a 20-year-old man picked up Wednesday night by the Preventive Police.

Celia Almazan, whose son, Pedro Urban Almazan, was killed, said she tried repeatedly to get him to leave the police force "but he told me that it was his passion, and look now, he died."

Last year, 37 police officers were killed in the Tijuana area, 22 of them from the city department.

The police department has changed tactics, sending officers out in convoys of three cars.