News From Behind The Front

It's not unusual for "hitmen" to go to a hospital to finish the job when someone is only wounded and survives the assassination attempt. When the military arrived in Juarez they were protecting the hospital that was treating the wounded police commander. Now that he has been transferred to a U.S. level 1 trauma center, law enforcement here has gone on alert and are guarding the commander.

Thomason Hospital was placed on "lockdown" Wednesday by El Paso and federal law enforcement authorities guarding a Chihuahua police commander who survived an assassination attempt.

El Paso police and sheriff's deputies stood guard outside the hospital with assault rifles. Doors were locked, and all visitors went through a metal detector in unusually tight security for the county hospital.

Cmdr. Fernando Lozano Sandoval of the Chihuahua State Investigations Agency is being treated at Thomason after surviving a mob-style ambush that occurred Monday night while he drove on a Juárez street.

Lozano, 51, had been in critical but stable condition in a Juárez hospital, where he was guarded by heavily armed Mexican soldiers. Tuesday evening, at the request of his family, he was transferred by ambulance to Thomason, Juárez authorities said.

The lockdown, which will continue for an undetermined amount of time, was ordered early Wednesday by officials with the El Paso Police Department, the El Paso County Sheriff's Office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

You can read the entire story here. I think I'll watch Traffic tonight.