| Advertisement |
Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Two migrant teenagers from Honduras were killed in Tijuana last weekend in an apparent robbery attempt, authorities said. Jason Acuna and Jorge Ruiz, both 16, were killed sometime between Saturday night and Sunday morning. The killers, presumably drug addicts, had tried to steal their belongings, Tijuana newspaper El Mexicano reported.
Advertisement
The killings occurred after the two teens and another left the migrant shelter where they'd been living. On their way to meet other migrants, they were approached by two women with a sexual proposition. They were tricked to enter an area, known to be inhabited by drug addicts, and were attacked. Two were strangled but one survived and provided testimony.
"The attackers, based on the testimony, were completely drugged," Jorge Alvarez, deputy prosecutor of Tijuana, told the newspaper.
The teenager that escaped did so only after he promised the attackers he was going to get money for them, Alvarez added. Police have mostly completed the investigation to identify and arrest the perpetrators.
El Sol de Tijuana newspaper reported one of the dead had a knife wound.
The victims were part of a migrant caravan from Central America and lived in a shelter for teenagers in Tijuana sponsored by the YMCA.
The caravans include thousands of individuals attempting to cross Mexico and reach the United States. They are traveling together precisely to minimize possibilities of being robbed or killed.
Criminals have for decades known that migrants on their way to the United States carry cash, which mas made them an easy target when they are dispersed.
