Associated Press
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico -- Three people with ties to the American consulate were killed in a drug-plagued Mexican city, including a U.S. couple shot to death within sight of the border with their baby in their back seat, officials said Sunday.
President Barack Obama expressed outrage over the killings, and Mexican President Felipe Calderon promised a swift investigation.
Several U.S. citizens have been killed in Mexico's drug war, most of them people with family ties to Mexico. However, it is rare for American government employees to be targeted.
The three died during a particularly bloody weekend in Mexico, with nearly 50 people killed in apparent drug-gang violence. Nine people were killed in a gang shootout early Sunday in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco, one of Mexico's spring break attractions.
The U.S. consulate employee and her husband were shot to death Saturday in their car near the Santa Fe International bridge linking Ciudad Juarez with El Paso, Texas, said Vladimir Tuexi, a spokesman for Chihuahua state prosecutors' office.
Their baby was found unharmed in the back seat. Tuexi estimated the child was about 1 year old.
Killed were consular employee Lesley A. Enriquez, 35, and her husband, Arthur H. Redelfs, 34, according to Robert Cason, Redelfs' stepfather.
Redelfs was a detention officer with the El Paso County Jail, Cason said.
Tuexi said the baby was in the custody of Mexican social services.
The U.S. government has not described Enriquez's job at the consulate, and Cason said he didn't know what she did there. A neighbor of Enriquez, Zonia Rivas, also didn't know.
The White House said the husband of a Mexican citizen employee was also killed Saturday, apparently in a separate shooting. Mexican authorities had no information on that slaying.
Obama was "deeply saddened and outraged" by the killings, the White House said.
"He extends his condolences to the families and condemns these attacks on consular and diplomatic personnel serving at our foreign missions," the White House said in a statement.
Police said they had no information on a possible motives.
