2 UTEP students slain in Juarez
Two UTEP business students — one set to graduate in the spring — were killed in a shooting in Juárez as the violence once again cast a pall over the university campus.
The students, Manuel Acosta Villalobos, 25, and Eder Diaz Otero, 23, were traveling in a Nissan Sentra with Texas plates when they were attacked about 8 p.m. Tuesday in colonia Rincones de Santa Rita, Chihuahua state police said.
Chihuahua state police said the assailants fired 36 rounds, shooting the students multiple times. Acosta died in the car. Diaz died Wednesday morning at a Juárez hospital.
Both were undergraduate students in the University of Texas at El Paso’s College of Business Administration. Acosta was studying computer information systems.
The two lived in Juárez and commuted to El Paso for school, university officials said.
[…]
Richard Barajas, a government teacher at Cathedral High School and EPCC, said Diaz was a student of his at Cathedral.
“He was a kind and gentle young man who continued to make his mark at UTEP until his tragic death,” Barajas said. “His senseless murder continues to scar the landscapes of both El Paso and Juárez.”
Richard Adauto, UTEP’s executive vice president, said Acosta and Diaz were courageous for commuting back and forth between El Paso and Juárez in order to take advantage of opportunities at UTEP. They knew the risks and they took them anyway, he said.
“Certainly, the students that go back and forth between El Paso and Juárez are much more attuned to what is going on in Juárez and understand the risk they carry with them everyday when they cross back and forth,” Adauto said.
[…]
That’s five US citizens killed in Juarez this week.In this photo from Oct. 20, Bravo Cadillac and Chevrolet owner Raymond Palacio greeted UTEP students Manuel Acosta Villalobos, left, and Eder Diaz Otero, second from left, as he entered a Business Administration room for a talk with students. Acosta, 25, and Diaz, 23, were shot and killed Tuesday in Juarez, UTEP officials said Wednesday. (Victor Calzada / El Paso Times)