Two Dead, Three Injured in Armed Chase on Bacalar-Buenavista Highway

Bacalar, Quintana Roo — Two people were killed and three others wounded, including a 3-year-old girl, in an armed chase and shooting on the Bacalar–Buenavista highway early Monday.

Néstor Poot Poot, 29, and Deisy Pech, 26, died in the attack near kilometer 27, according to initial reports. The injured were identified as the girl, her mother, and a woman named Sulma, all of whom were taken to hospitals in Chetumal.

The victims, residents of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, were traveling in a white Nissan Frontier with family members when they were allegedly followed from the outskirts of Chetumal by occupants of a Jeep. Around 12:27 a.m., one of the passengers called emergency services to report that a vehicle was tailing them. Minutes later, the attackers opened fire as the family drove toward Felipe Carrillo Puerto.

The driver tried to escape, ramming the attackers’ vehicle twice, but lost control, and the truck overturned into the brush.

Survivor Lidia Gissela Poot Poot told investigators the family was returning from a movie theater in Chetumal. They detoured into a community before reaching Bacalar in an attempt to shake their pursuers, but as they rejoined the highway, the suspects blocked their path and opened fire. She said the attackers fled toward Felipe Carrillo Puerto.

The family runs a Bachoco chicken distribution and sales operation in Felipe Carrillo Puerto. The product was stored in a shed and sold at the Néstor Enrique poultry shop on Avenida Lázaro Cárdenas, between 64th and 63rd streets, in the Leona Vicario neighborhood.

National Guard, Navy, Army, state rural police, municipal police, state highway patrol, and Bacalar civil protection personnel cordoned off the area and carried out an initial investigation alongside the State Prosecutor’s Office. Forensic officers collected evidence, and investigators gathered information to determine the circumstances of the attack. No motive has been released, and no arrests have been reported.

The Felipe Carrillo Puerto municipal government later published a memorial notice mourning the deaths of Poot Poot and Pech and offering condolences to their families.