A 33-year-old El Monte school board member and five other men were shot dead execution-style in north central Mexico on Wednesday night.
Agustin Roberto “Bobby'' Salcedo, who also served as assistant principal of instruction at El Monte High School, was on vacation with his wife, near her home town of Durango, Mexico. Salcedo was born and raised in the Los Angeles area.
Salcedo's family told the Los Angeles Times that he and his wife were having dinner Wednesday night with some of her ex-classmates in a restaurant when armed men burst in and kidnapped Salcedo and the five others. The bodies of all six were found Thursday, El Monte officials told the Times. Salcedo's wife was not abducted.
The bodies were discovered alongside a canal, The Times reported. All had been shot in the head, and dozens of spent bullet casings were found at the site, suggesting they had been slain on the spot.
“From all accounts right now, it sounds random,'' Salcedo's brother, Carlos, told The Times. “There is no reason for my brother to be targeted.''
Bobby and Betzy Salcedo had been married two years, The Times reported. Betzy Salcedo was a physician in Mexico. She has been preparing for examination to practice in the United States.
In November, Salcedo was re-elected to a new term on the school board of the El Monte City School District, which governs the city's elementary schools. Before becoming a school administrator, he taught world history, government and economics.
Raging drug violence and rampant corruption have been a major problem in Durango, which has been described as a tense, rough state. The local Catholic archbishop, Hector Gonzalez Martinez, recently described the region to The Times as one where gunmen “own the night,'' even threatening priests.
