POLICE CHIEF OF MONTERREY SUBURB KILLED

MONTERREY, Mexico -- A police chief and a city council member were
shot and killed Thursday in Nuevo Leon, a state bordering Texas where
a string of law enforcement officers have been killed in drug-related
violence.

Police Chief Baltazar Gomez and council member Osvaldo Rodriguez, both
of Santa Catarina, a suburb of Monterrey, were killed just after
midnight by a gunman who followed them into a convenience store after
they had attended a funeral, police said. A second council member was
wounded.

Mr. Gomez, who had been police chief just three weeks, was the sixth
law enforcement official killed this year in Nuevo Leon.

Colleagues of Mr. Gomez told the newspaper El Norte that he had
received death threats from drug traffickers.

Last week, Humberto Chavez, a police commander in the suburb of San
Nicolas, was shot and killed outside his house.