POLICE ACCOUNT OF JUAREZ GUNMAN DISPUTED

Relatives, Witnesses Say Maquila Worker Was Unarmed

JUAREZ -- An El Paso family torn apart by a border and a drug war
reunited at a funeral Tuesday.

More than 10 El Pasoans drove into Juarez to attend the funeral of
Joel Ernesto Cereceres, 24, who was killed Saturday during a gun
battle that took place across the border from the University of Texas
at El Paso and the nearby Sunset Heights neighborhood.

Mexican federal police said Cereceres, a Mexican national, was a
gunman who exchanged bullets with them shortly before 6 p.m. Three
Juarez police officers were wounded during that shootout, said Mexican
federal police spokes man Jose Ramon Salinas.

The family of Cereceres said he was not shooting at police. They said
he was running through the street seeking cover from the onslaught of
bullets being exchanged between police and narco traffickers. Police
got the facts and Cereceres' age wrong, family said. Police say he was
24; his family says he was 22.

Cereceres was a chef at a maquiladora who worked hard for his money,
said his U.S.-born cousin, Elizabeth Contreras.

"It's not fair for him to die like that, alone, and for them to ruin
his name when it's not even like that. He had so much to live for,"
she said.

Residents of Calle Vanadio said they saw Cereceres chasing after a car
before he was shot and killed by Mexican police Saturday. They said
that police shot the wrong man and that Cereceres was unarmed.

Contreras, 23, wept bitterly over her cousin's death as she watched
her relatives throw dirt on his casket Tuesday at the Jardines del
Recuerdo cemetery in southwest Juarez.

Not all of her El Paso and Juarez relatives were able to make it to
the funeral, Contreras said. Everyone wanted to attend, but some
people were afraid there might be a shootout in the middle of the
burial. Retaliation against family members has been a common theme at
Juarez funerals, she said.

Contreras said she was willing to take the risk.

"This is the last time we're ever going to see him," she said. "So if
anything happens, well, we might as well be together."

Contreras said the area Cereceres lived in has become increasingly
dangerous over the years. When she was younger, she used to play with
him in the streets. Now, children who live in the brightly colored
homes with iron bars on the windows no longer talk to strangers
because those strangers could have perilous drug-trafficking
connections.

The gunbattle that Cereceres died in on Saturday took place in an area
comprising several small neighborhoods where three major incidents
have affected El Pasoans in the past two months.

On June 29, a gunfight between Mexican police and criminals erupted
near an S-Mart parking lot. The battle near the supermarket chain
store killed one Mexican federal police officer and probably created
seven bullet pockmarks in the walls of El Paso City Hall, according to
the El Paso Police Department.

On Aug. 6, Irvin High School teacher James Patrick Barnes was shot in
the back on the balcony of his girlfriend's house, according to
Colonia Cazadores Juarenses residents. That house was two blocks from
where the gunbattle took place Saturday.

UTEP police suspect that a stray bullet from that battle pierced a
glass panel of Bell Hall and hit the corner of College of Science
adviser Margie Gutierrez's office door.

In addition, El Paso police are investigating the possibility that
another stray bullet struck a car. On Tuesday, Rescue Mission of El
Paso employees said that the mission was hit by at least one bullet
from the gunbattle and that they found three ricochet marks.

Residents of Sunset Heights who witnessed Saturday's shootout said
they have noticed that the violence just across Paisano Drive has
increased over time.

Alejandro Olvera, 39, said he is worried about the safety of Sunset
Heights and his family. He said he has lived in the 1300 block of Main
Street for the past three years and has been shocked recently by
hearing multiple bullets slicing through the air.

Irma Davila, 47, also lives in the 1300 block of Main Street. She said
she, too, has noticed the escalation in violence across the Rio Grande.

"In the past couple of months we've seen a lot of Mexican police
dressed in black going through that neighborhood (in Juarez)," she
said.

Salinas, spokesman for the Mexican federal police, declined to comment
on the reputation of the neighborhood.

The drug war in Juarez has killed more than 1,900 people this year. A
total of 6,159 have been slain since 2008, according to an El Paso
Times tally.

But even though violence has increased just yards from Sunset Heights,
the demand for a house in the historic neighborhood has not changed.

During the first eight months of 2010, homes in Sunset Heights sold at
prices from about $90,000 to $250,000. Those homes stayed on the
market for less than a year, according to data provided by the Greater
El Paso Association of Realtors.

In addition, crime statistics show that assaults, burglaries, burglary
of vehicles, larceny and robberies are down for one of the oldest
areas in the city by about 7 percent this year, according to the El
Paso Police Department.

Olvera said the house he lives in has been owned by his wife's family
for about 30 years. Leaving at this point is not an option, he said.

"We won't change homes," Olvera said. "We will continue to live
here."

Adriana Gomez Licon contributed to this story.