| Photo: Tomas Bravo/Reuters |
| Bullet-riddled patrol trucks and a pockmarked building are the aftermath of an attack at a police station in Los Ramones, about 43 miles from Monterrey, Mexico. |
Every cop in a small northern Mexican town quit Tuesday after gunmen heavily sprayed their brand new police headquarters Monday night.
All 14 members of the Los Ramones police force reportedly resigned, according to MSNBC. Nobody was answering the phone at the office of Mayor Santos Salinas, The Associated Press reported.
Gunmen fired more than 1,000 rounds at the building’s facade, reports Noroeste. Six grenades, three of which detonated, were also thrown at the building, according to the the newspaper.
“Fortunately, those who were inside the building threw themselves on the ground and nobody was hurt,” Mayor Salinas told the paper. Six people were reportedly inside the building at the time of the attack.
The new police headquarters had opened only three days earlier.
According to Mayor Salinas, “unknown assailants” launched a 20-minute attack on the police station at about 9:30 p.m. on Monday. Police backup arrived soon after, though of course not until the attack was over.
The mayor claimed he had not received any threats before the attack, but police earlier noticed “suspicious men” driving luxury SUVs in the area, Noroeste reported.
Fearing a cartel attack, policemen lined up their patrol cars in front of the building to create a barricade. All six vehicles were damaged in the attack.
It was the second attack in less than a week against police stations in the state of Neuvo Leon. On October 19, two grenades were flung at a police office in the town of Sabinas Hidalgo, according to Noroeste.
The town of Los Ramones is in Nuevo Leon, a Mexican state torn by violence between two rival drug gangs, the Gulf cartel and the Zetas. Police stations in northeastern Mexican towns are frequently attacked, and several mayors have been killed.
It is not unusual for ill-equipped Mexican police to quit after drug cartel attacks.
President Felipe Calderon has even suggested eliminating municipal police forces altogether and replacing them with one consolidated police force per state.
Editor’s note: Los Ramones wins the award for coolest town name of the day. How would you like to live in a town called The Ramones?! Oh, and buzzkill about the police station, man.
