“Persecuted by bad luck…” Another Prensa crime page masterpiece

The second in my occasional translation of  “paid by the word” notas rojas, tonight’s masterpiece is actually one of the better nota rojas I’ve ever read.  The genre calls for elevated, euphemistic language that’s still understandable to the not well-educated readership, and… given the fact that reporters are paid by the word… requires the ability to produce interminably long, run-on sentences.  Most reporters use tricks like padding out the story with extraneous information like the make, model and year of the police car or the serial number of the gun, but not here(Not that the author wouldn’t include it, if he had the information… he is paid by the word, after all). 

Not here.  Within the literary constraints of a nota roja, Gabriel Zendejas has written an exciting tale of crime, citizen bravery, a police chase and a tragedy for la Prensa. It’s literature… of a sort.

I don’t know what to make of it that when you log on to la Pensa now, you have to affirm that you’re old enough to read their hair-raising (and literary style killing) articles and look at the photos (this one included the main protaganist in tonight’s drama face up, eyes open, and outlined in chalk). 

I think we’re all old enough to read  Petty thief died facing police in a shootout.  ¡Provecho!   

Persecuted by bad luck yesterday morning, one of three assailants in Iztapalapa, who — in a desperate attempt to avoid capture at the hands of the uniformed police — tured and shot, but as it happened, one of whom was felled by the projectiles filed by the representatives of law and order.  The remaining two accomplices of the dead delinquent, in the end, were caught by the police as they searched for refuge in a building in Colonia Leyes de Reforma. 

The bloody deeds occured during the pursuit  of the three assailants by uniformed SSP-DF officers, who hoped to deceive the police as they feld through several streets in Leyes de Reforma, which lies both in the Federal District and in the State of Mexico. 

In the shooting, the one who perished was identified as a participant in an action by which the three had relieved 2500 pesos from Jose Manuel Salgado, who had gone to an automatic teller of a HSBC branch in that Colonia, and after making a withdrawl, was leaving the area, when he was violently intercepted by the delinquents. 

In agreement with the first versions of events told to Iztapalapa Delegation sector agents, the subjects forced their victim to give them money, took the time to remove a gold chain and other objects by showing him the business end of a pistol and making death threats. 

After completing their illicit act, the attackers fled the scene in a gray Corsa, without a license plate; however, they had not counted on the fact that the victim had gone to the bank on his bicycle, and, without thinking twice about it, had decided to follow the thieves. 

Within a few meters, of where he found them, the affected victim encounted the occupants of an SSP-DF patrol car, from whom he requested assistance.   Upon noticing that they were being followed by agents of prevention, the deliquents opted to alight from their Corsa on calle Sur 23, and soon slithered into a house at Number 123 on that stret, where in their desperation, they made for the roof, jumping across roofs to other buildings. 

In their flight across the roofs, the deliquents were pursued by those men in uniform, who, upon entering upon the place, opened fire upon them. 

During the skirmish, one of the presumed theives died, when he received a shot to the chest, and in a matter of minutes, bled to death.