An American tourist spoke about the shootout of drug dealers on the beach of a hotel in Mexico memories of the experience. The man was interviewed on the morning TV show Good Morning America.
In the program, Tanner VanValkenburg said that he flew to Cancun with his friends to relax in a luxury hotel in the small resort village of Puerto Morelos. On the day of the incident, the group was on the beach – when the tourists heard the sounds of gunshots, they thought that someone was launching fireworks.
After the sounds became more frequent, the tourists began to scream and run away. It is noted that the militants killed two members of a rival gang on the beach, and then continued to shoot at tourists. The American and other people rushed to the pool bar to take refuge there, but as soon as Vanwalkenburg jumped into the water, he was shot in the back.
The traveler had to press hard with his hand to avoid large blood loss. According to the man, an armed bandit walked past the pool where people were hiding. “To be honest, I thought I was going to die. It seemed to me that the militants would come and shoot us all, ”Vanwalkenburg recalled.
The man was taken to a local hospital. As a result of the injury, he lost his arm mobility, and he was bandaged. After being discharged, he returned home to the United States for an operation to remove a bullet.
On November 4, 15 members of a gang of drug dealers staged a shootout on a beach near two elite hotels in Puerto Morelos. The attackers attacked a rival group, as a result of which they killed two drug dealers – one of them managed to hide in a hotel before his death. Terrified tourists also rushed to leave the coast and hide in their hotel rooms.