RELATED: Women Demand Action As Femicides Increase In Sonora, Nationwide, Reported by Max Rivlin-Nadler May 19, 2020 at 8:30 a.m. SAN DIEGO (AP) — A Southern California woman and her boyfriend have been arrested on suspicion of collecting ransom in … Man fatally hit by Benicia police officer in patrol car identified, Justice Dept. Workers in protective gear are digging graves and transporting bodies to outlying Tijuana cemeteries. “We are focusing on fighting impunity in this crime,” Flores said. People are supposed to wear face coverings in public, but Calderon said there was little enforcement. They were reportedly held in a Tijuana hotel while their families were contacted with ransom demands, prosecutors allege. The two other public hospitals in Tijuana that are treating coronavirus patients also had a large number of staff out sick but the agency running those clinics denied that the high death rate was due to staff shortages. Keep up with all the latest news, arts and culture, and TV highlights from KPBS. Thursday, November 12, 2020 at Last month, Baja California governor Jaime Bonilla said doctors, many of whom work in both the state and federal system, were “dropping like flies” in Tijuana. “In any given moment, the number of deaths from this epidemic is far higher,” he said. TIJUANA (Border Report) — It’s 1,305 murders and counting this year in the city of Tijuana, an average of roughly 5.5 per day.Just this month, 131 murders have been committed, according to Baja California’s security and investigative unit. Tijuana is the municipality with the most deaths attributed to COVID-19 in Mexico, 243 so far, according to state and federal health department data. Go out, earn a living, but risk your life. Those two homicides were the last reported in 2019, but sometimes the numbers trickle upwards after the year’s official end because more victims are either discovered or identified.

While Tijuana’s figure might be due partly to an unduly high proportion of very sick patients being tested for coronavirus, Alberto Reyes Escamilla, director of Tijuana General Hospital, said he thought it was directly linked to the hospital’s personnel shortage. Carlos Flores, commissioner of the State Security and Investigation Guard for Baja California, said the high number of homicides in Tijuana accounts for almost 75 percent of the killings across the entire state, pushing Baja California up in rank as the state with the second highest number of murders in Mexico for 2019. 1 p.m. His body was found in Mexico on April 14. However, some officials blamed the nature of the virus itself. New lawsuit to challenge Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy, Legal representatives for asylum seekers who have been forced to wait in Mexico for U.S. hearings are suing the federal government over the Trump administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols, Border Patrol agent fatally shoots man near San Ysidro outlet mall, pedestrian crossing, The deadly shooting occurred around 5:45 p.m. in San Ysidro, in an area south of the Las Americas Premium Outlets and west of the pedestrian crossing into Mexico, Authorities ID 2 of 3 victims when car crashed off Oceanside highway into pole, The triple-fatal crash happened about 2 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5, when a westbound SUV crashed off SR-78 and struck a pole near El Camino Real, Motorcyclist critically injured after crashing on state Route 75 in Coronado, The crash forced the closure of southbound state Route 75, Driver leads San Diego police on 45-minute, slow-speed chase through Hillcrest, downtown, The pursuit began in City Heights and ended at a rental car center near the San Diego International Airport, Plane goes off runway in Fallbrook; only person onboard walks away, sheriff’s official said. Thousands of women and girls have either been murdered or gone missing in recent years.
Want more KPBS news?Find us on Twitter and Facebook, or sign up for our newsletters. Reuters witnessed Muro and fellow paramedics respond to multiple 911 calls within a 24-hour period where people they suspected of having COVID-19 were dead when help arrived. Acrobat Reader. Flooding inundates western North Carolina, The Weeknd to perform at Pepsi Super Bowl halftime show, Olympic leaders raise hopes for Tokyo Games with fans in attendance, Post-election tension clouds chances for second stimulus check, COVID-19 relief, Carlsbad parks, trails, beach and golf course to open, Coronavirus in San Diego and California: Latest updates and news, San Diego County residents required to wear face coverings in public starting May 1. GET BREAKING NEWS IN YOUR BROWSER. Forty percent of the health care work force is out due to COVID-19 infection, or because they fall into high risk categories, according the union representing health workers in Tijuana. Celebrity Obituaries from 2020. Stream or tune in Friday, Nov. 13, 2020 at 9 p.m. & Sunday, Nov. 15 at 2 p.m. on KPBS 2 + Sunday, Nov. 15 at Noon on KPBS TV, Port Of Entry Podcast: The Black Lives Matter Movement Is Crossing The Border, The Women Of Peru Are Suffering From A 'Shadow Pandemic', First Women's Studies Department In Nation Celebrates 50 Years, Women In Tijuana 'Disappear' For A Day To Protest Femicides, San Diego Air & Space Museum To Close Saturday Due To Pandemic Restrictions, Mom And Pop Restaurant Prepares For San Diego County's Purple Tier. Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window), Coronavirus in California: 1 million infections in perspective, Couple arrested after two kidnapped Californians are slain in Tijuana. Parks and beaches remained closed in Tijuana. 20 USC gets another test against Arizona in road opener, Southern California was outplayed for 57 minutes in its season opener against Arizona State, Glenn Hoffman moving into new role with Padres, Team will have new third base coach for first time in 16 seasons as Hoffman becomes baseball ops adviser, Baylor, Kansas lead stacked Big 12 into college hoops season, With four starters back from last season, second-ranked Baylor has been picked by many as the class of the conference. 2 bodies found in Tijuana identified as missing OC couple Relatives have identified a missing Garden Grove couple, confirming they were found dead on a property in Tijuana, Mexico.
Members of the National Guard walk near the crime scene where 24 people were killed in Irapuato, Guanajuato state, Mexico, on July 1, 2020.

Drug violence continues to grip Tijuana, which again had the most homicides of any city in Mexico last year, though hundreds fewer than 2018. The Baja government is stepping in amid complaints of price gouging at private funeral homes by ordering a flat rate of $300 dollars for cremation services. A medical assistant who works in IMSS Hospital 1 — one of Tijuana’s coronavirus hospitals — described a grim scene. That day, his family tried unsuccessfully to make the $25,000 payoff in a Lowe’s parking lot in Norwalk, in southern Los Angeles County. IMSS Baja California planning coordinator Clemente Martinez told Reuters nearly 14% of doctors at each of the IMSS hospitals in Tijuana had been sent home with coronavirus-related symptoms since the pandemic began, and that other high-risk doctors had been furloughed proactively. “Tijuana has been representing between 70 to 75 percent of the problem, so our main focus is here,” said Flores. RELATED: Carlsbad parks, trails, beach and golf course to open, RELATED: Coronavirus in San Diego and California: Latest updates and news, RELATED: San Diego County residents required to wear face coverings in public starting May 1. “That figure that … Max Rivlin-Nadler Also sign up for our community newspaper newsletters, and CaregiverSD. He had been shot in the head, according to local police.

The protest blocked multiple lanes of traffic heading into Mexico, backing up cars on the southbound Interstate 5 well into south San Diego County. But, in a country where 1 in 10 homicide crimes are solved and the conviction rate is less than 6 percent, it’s an uphill battle. The all-female protesters in Tijuana say the government isn't doing enough to stop these murders.

TIJUANA, Mexico (Border Report) — Four men were shot to death within 48 hours in Tijuana, and all the murders appeared to be unrelated, according to police.One of … 15, Purple-Tier COVID Restrictions for San Diego County Take Effect Early Saturday, Tom Metzger Dies at 82; Notorious KKK Boss, Supremacist Who Ran for Congress, Opinion: As San Diego Faces COVID Closures, Gyms Should Be Kept Open, Newsom Recall Drive Gets New Life: Signature Deadline Delayed to March 17, San Diego Thanksgiving 2020 Guide: What’s Open, Where to Order Takeout. Coronavirus deaths in Tijuana total 170, with death total in San Diego at 134. Investigators at a crime scene in Tijuana’s Zona Norte, where a woman’s body was found wrapped in a blanket and left in a shopping cart together with a threatening message in April 2019. compared to seven killed on the last day of the year in 2018, trends from 2018 with lower-level drug dealers battling over street corner.

Another doctor at Tijuana General, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to media, said the staffing shortage, especially of nurses, was forcing medics to concentrate on treating the most serious cases, risking allowing other COVID-19 patients’ conditions to worsen in the meantime. Post was not sent - check your email addresses!

Martinez acknowledged that the morgue, which is built to hold four corpses, did not always have space now. Get the day's top news — ranging from local to international — straight to your inbox each weekday morning. Tijuana’s death count stood at 170 on Friday, with San Diego County’s death toll at 134.

KPBS' daily news podcast covering local politics, education, health, environment, the border and more. Three men — residents of San Diego, Norwalk and Pasadena — were kidnapped separately while in Tijuana on business or visiting family, prosecutors said.