TIJUANA, Mexico – The killing of a teenager from a prominent Tijuana family who attended high school in California was a targeted assassination, the attorney general of the Mexican border state of Baja California said Wednesday.
Jose Fernando Labastida, 17, was shot in a late-model Audi car with California license plates near his home on Monday. Initial investigations indicate he was shot six times, and nearly 60 shell casings were found at the scene, most from assault rifles.
Attorney General Rommel Moreno said Labastida was the victim of "a direct attack to assassinate him," apparently not a botched kidnap attempt.
Labastida resided in Tijuana but attended the Catholic Mater Dei High School in Chula Vista, California.
A U.S. consular official said Labastida was a U.S. citizen. His grandfather, Gilberto Fimbres, is one of the owners of the Calimax supermarket chain.
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