I write this post with a heavy heart. I have been angry and at times distraught over the violence and death in my country. I have shared with you my sadness, dismay, and despair. Today, I will share with you death, the recent execution of my friend, Dany.

Looking for Mexican newslinks to include in my Instablog regional homepage was made much easier with Google Alerts. I simply placed my tags and await the news to come to me. I was in no way suprised when Google swamped my email with news of more Mexican Drug War violence, seeing the headline of a cop killed in Sonora didn’t even cause me to blink an eye, until I opened the link and saw his face.

Shortly after 9:00 p.m, Dany Najera had just finished his shift, still in uniform, he stopped for a bite to eat from a sidewalk hotdog cart. He hadn’t even placed his order when he was shot from behind by a high powered 40 mm pistol five times; 2 bullets to the back of his head, one to his neck, and two to his back. He died instantly; Dany was thirty seven.

Dany was my friend, a dear friend. Although we have lived in different states for years, we still managed to see eachother once or twice a year. He was recently married to a wonderful woman who just graduated med school. Dany wasn’t just a cop, he was a good cop, loyal to the innocent citizens and state he was paid to protect. He was a man who firmly believed he could make a difference in this world. Obviously his enthusiasm for change were not welcomed in Sonora.

I pray Dany rests in peace, but I doubt he will. His life was snuffed before his time and for reasons which will never be known. Why was Dany killed? Was it information he had about narco movments and a sinister vendetta by the narco cartel, or did his enemy, the man who took his life, come from within, from the very lives he was paid to protect? I’m sure these questions will never be answered, Dany has been erased by Sonora, the only signs of his existance lie in the hands, hearts, and memories of those who knew and loved him.

R.I.P. Dany.