Aurora man recounts harrowing ordeal after being kidnapped, shot in Mexico
'They were arguing about when and where to kill me'
An Aurora man was shot as he and his family were targeted by thieves in a roadside ambush just before Christmas in northern Mexico.
RELATED: Aurora family violently robbed in Mexico
Luis Gutierrez was shot and beaten during the attack, which also targeted his daughter and his father. Gutierrez was just discharged from a hospital in San Antonio on Monday, and the family is now in the process of figuring out how soon they can get back to Chicago and resume their normal lives.
"He took out a gun, and put it behind my ear," Luis Gutierrez told ABC 7.
Gutierrez, 52, recounted the harrowing experience, he, his daughter and elderly father went through in the Mexican state of Zacatecas last month. Gutierrez was discovered by state police, by the side of the road, covered in blood.
"I just say that thank God we're alive," said Sofia Gutierrez. "They might have took our stuff but that doesn't matter. What matters is that we're alive and here's my dad. And I'm here and my grandpa is alive.
It all started a couple of days before Christmas as the Gutierrez family was driving their SUV from Aurora, to Jalisco, Mexico to spend the holiday. They were traveling late into the night when they pulled over to rest. That's when they were carjacked. Sofia and her grandfather were left behind by their attackers, as Luis Gutierrez was kidnapped and forced into another vehicle.
"They were arguing about when and where to kill me," Luis Gutierrez said. "The driver didn't want to clean up the blood from his car."
In the end Gutierrez managed to get away, but not before being shot twice, once in the leg and once in the hip. He was airlifted to a Mexican hospital for emergency surgery. Unfortunately, his story is not unique. Just last week a 13-year-old Oklahoma boy was killed after the car his family was traveling in along the U.S./Mexico border was ambushed.
The ambushes comes at a time when U.S. citizens have been warned against travel to portions of northern Mexico where gang activity and violent crime are common.
Dual nationals crossing the border by car to visit family over the holidays are often targeted because it is assumed they are coming into the country loaded with gifts and money for their families in Mexico.
