A cockfight turned ugly in Texas….Pause. Three were left dead and eight more injured. Get the full story after the jump.
Daily Mail – Three people were killed and eight injured when masked gunmen opened fire during an illegal cockfight on a Texas ranch.
The attack, described by authorities as a bloody massacre, sent spectators fleeing from makeshift bleachers surrounding the fighting ring near Edcouch, near Mexico.
Police were searching for the attackers and for clues as to their possible motives, Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino said.
Homer Jasso, the justice of the peace for that area of the county, said the scene was shocking in its gore.
‘It was a massacre,’ Jasso said. ‘I haven’t seen this kind of violence in the valley here on my watch. This is the first time in my life I’ve seen something this bad.’
Authorities were withholding the names of the victims until after they had notified the men’s families, but they said two of them, aged 49 and 53, were brothers. The other man was 42 years old.
Jasso said one man lay dead under the corrugated metal and wood pavilion that housed the bleachers, ring and concession stand.
The bodies of the other two men were just outside. Investigators didn’t know how many people were at the fights, but Jasso estimated there were 200 to 300 discarded beer cans on the ground.
The bodies of at least 20 dead fighting roosters were also strewn about, although Jasso said he didn’t know if the birds died in the ring or the gunfire.
‘It was awful, awful, awful,’ Jasso said.
Sheriff’s dispatcher Gloria Felix said the wounded were taken to hospitals, but she did not know their conditions.
