Mexican beauty queen killed in shootout
BY Associated Press
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
11/27/12 at 6:42 AM
A 20-year-old state beauty queen was killed during a running gunbattle between soldiers and the gang of drug traffickers she was traveling with in northern Mexico, the chief prosecutor of the state of Sinaloa said Monday.
The body of Maria Susana Flores Gamez was found lying near an assault rifle on a rural road in a mountainous area of the drug-plagued state. It was unclear if she had used the weapon.
"She was with the gang of criminals, but we cannot say whether she participated in the shootout," state prosecutor Marco Antonio Higuera said. "That's what we're going to have to investigate."
The slender brunette was voted the 2012 Woman of Sinaloa in a beauty pageant in February. She had earlier competed for the other, more prestigious state beauty contest, Our Beauty Sinaloa, but didn't win.
Higuera said Flores Gamez was traveling in one of the vehicles that engaged soldiers in an hours-long chase and running gunbattle on Saturday. Higuera said two other members of the drug gang were killed, and four were detained.
The shootout began when the gunmen opened fire on a Mexican army patrol. Soldiers gave chase and cornered the gang at a safe house near the town of Mocorito. They escaped, and the gunbattle continued along a nearby roadway, where the gang's vehicles were eventually stopped. Six vehicles, drugs and weapons were seized following the confrontation.
Original Print Headline: Beauty queen is killed in shootout
