Days In The Making: Authorities Reveal New Details in Double Homicide Of Mexico City Officials

Authorities are revealing new details of the May 20 killings of two senior Mexico City government officials.

Ximena Guzmán, personal secretary to Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada, and José Muñoz, an adviser, were shot and killed by gunmen on a motorcycle in the capital's Moderna neighborhood earlier this week.

Surveillance footage shows a man wearing a helmet approaching the victims' parked vehicle and firing multiple shots at close range before fleeing on a motorcycle.

However, officials now say at least four people were involved in the attack, which had been days in the making.

Mexico City Police Chief Pablo Vázquez Camacho said that investigators have located a motorcycle and two other vehicles used by the suspects to escape.

Similarly, Mexico City's chief prosecutor Bertha Alcalde Luján said the alleged gunman fled on a motorcycle hidden nearby, then switched vehicles twice while escaping into neighboring Mexico State.

"This was a direct attack, with a significant degree of planning," Alcalde Lujan said, as reported by CBS News. She added that the attackers had "experience."

Surveillance and planning

A video shared on social media by journalist Carlos Jiménez appears to show the alleged attacker near the scene of the murders six days earlier, on May 14.

In the footage, the man is wearing the same clothing seen in the May 20 attack and appears to be scouting the location. According to Jiménez, the man may have aborted an earlier attempt when only one of the victims was present.

Alcalde Lujan and Camacho confirmed that authorities had identified the man at the site days before the murders, indicating he may have been familiar with the victims' routines. Guzmán was shot eight times, while Muñoz was shot four times.

"We cannot conclude that this is tied to organized crime, much less identify a particular group," Alcalde said.

The killings of Guzmán and Muñoz mark the first attack against public officials in Mexico City since 2020, when armed civilians ambushed the country's current Security Minister, Omar García Harfuch.

On June 26, 2020, Harfuch and two of his security guards were attacked by about 20 armed individuals along Paseo de la Reforma, one of the city's main roads, as he was en-route to his office.

Harfuch survived the ambush, but three people were killed in the assault, which involved more than 400 rounds fired at his vehicle.