Oaxaca, Mexico: American gets caught in downtown shootout and is killed -- UPDATED

UPDATE:The American's name is now being reported as Bradley Will, working for Indymedia Mexico. Well, that would explain the casual dress. There were 4 others wounded in the shooting, 3 whose wounds don't sound too serious and one whose wound -- in the side at belt level -- sounds a bit more worrisome.

The incident is now being reported as occurring when a pickup truck tried to get through a barricade. The APPO personnel manning the barricade set the vehicle on fire. Within minutes, a small group of men, reportedly Municipal Policemen, arrived and tried to recover the truck. When they were met by threats of Molotov cocktails, they opened fire. They reportedly are now inside the Municipal Palace (City Hall) and that building has been surrounded by armed APPO personnel. They are threatening to force their way into the building and try to take out the suspected shooters.

It is also being reported that shots are ringing out sporadically around the building. It is not clear whether the shots are coming from or being directed into the building.

An as yet unidentified American, reportedly working as some kind of journalist, was shot in the abdomen in a clash in downtown Oaxaca and killed. I'll get his name as soon as I can and let you know who it was and what he was doing here. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time when a gunfight broke out between APPO supporters manning a street barricade and others reported to have been people who lived in the surrounding area.

It has not been uncommon for trouble to erupt between outsiders who move into a neighborhood to set up street barricades and the neighborhood residents who object to the inconvenience as well as the crime that the barricade attracts. That may or may not be what happened today.

As you can see in the first and second photos, he was dressed only in a pair of shorts with apparently no shirt nor shoes. That would have be considered a bit unusual for a journalist. I'll get more details as they become available.

American Bradley Will lies mortally wounded from gunshot to abdomen.

Wounded American Bradley Will being carried to an ambulance.


Another wounded APPO supporter is carried towards an ambulance.


APPO supporters and innocent bystanders run for cover after shooting breaks out again.


Help for the wounded may be slow in coming after this.
I do not know if the attack on this ambulance contributed in any way to the American's death.

It does not cease to amaze me how many people, mostly Americans, are not taking the violence and danger here seriously. I still receive emails saying, "Everyone is so friendly," and, "We didn't have any trouble at all." They then go on to castigate me for blowing the situation out of proportion. Well, maybe so. If they consider the 7 Mexicans who have been murdered and the one who was decapitated by the steel cable stretched across a street as, in some manner, proportional, then maybe they're right. My view on it is that a murder is a murder. Furthermore, as far as the "We haven't had any trouble at all,", neither had the now dead American, at least not up until today. It only takes one time, as he discovered, much too late.

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TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers strike, American killed