Mexican groom shot dead in front of wife moments after wedding in Caborca, Sonora as authorities say the shooting was likely case of mistaken identity amid drug cartel war.
Not a happy marriage … A groom was gunned down in Mexico moments after tying the knot over the weekend — in a case of mistaken identity amid the region’s ongoing drug cartel wars.
Marco Antonio Rosales Contreras, 32, was leaving his wedding ceremony at Neustra Señora de La Candelaria church in Caborca around 5 p.m. on Saturday when he was struck by multiple bullets, El Universal reported.
Witnesses later said the shots came from a single unidentified man who ran away down the street. Antonio, a software engineer from Guadalajara, was pronounced dead en route to the hospital.
Video footage shows his new wife being escorted away from the church in hysterics, her white wedding dress stained with blood.
Antonio’s sister, Michelle Adriana, 23, was also shot in the back. She was treated at the hospital and released hours later.
#AzucenaALas10 | Tras ser asesinado por un grupo de criminales que presuntamente lo confundieron, Marco Antonio Rosales Contreras de 32 años, fue incinerado y enviado a Durango pic.twitter.com/qBEItiXlkE
— Azucena Uresti (@azucenau) October 26, 2022
Era ingeniero el joven ejecutado en su boda en Caborca.
Marco Antonio Rosales Contreras recién casado, era originario de Durango y vivía en Guadalajara (Jalisco) tenia 32 años fue atacado a balazos por un sujeto al salir de su boda religiosa. pic.twitter.com/h6vnh2G779
— Rosa Lilia Torres- Noticias (@rosaliliatorrs) October 24, 2022
Mistaken identity killing
Responding to the shooting, Sonora Attorney General’s Office, stated that Antonio’s killing was a ‘direct attack’, and that the bullets were most likely intended for someone else.
Read a released statement, ‘Investigations indicate that the attack against Marco Antonio was directed towards another individual who was also getting married at the same time in a different nearby city’.
According to authorities, another man was also shot at his wedding in a neighboring city on the same night.
Located in the country’s northwest corner, Caborca is home to an eponymous cartel helmed by veteran ‘narco of narcos’ Rafael Caro Quintero. Caro Quintero was arrested in July, and awaits extradition for the 1985 murder of a US Drug Enforcement Administration agent.
Cartel violence is a growing concern in Caborca, as the local drug-trafficking ring wages war against an armed branch of the Sinaloa Cartel across Mexico.
The weekend shooting follows an incident last month at a pool hall in local Tarimoro, where gunmen opened fire and killed ten and wounded at least three. No arrests have yet to be made in that case.
