According to her relatives, an American mother of four was slain and her younger sister was injured in a mass shooting in Mexico on Sunday night. Melissa Silva, 36, and her sister had flown to Mexico to visit family when gunmen opened fire on a crowd, killing 20 people. Her sibling was shot, but she was unharmed.
Alex Silva, Melissa’s brother, told CBS Chicago that he and his family are heartbroken.
“I went crazy for a couple of minutes,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it.”
Melissa Silva grew raised in Warrenville, a western Chicago suburb, but later relocated to Watsonville, California. She was one among 20 individuals slain in the town of Las Tinajas, Michoacan state, Mexico, on Sunday night at a cockfighting site.
“I get a phone call from a friend out here telling that they heard gunshots and that it came from that place, and two minutes later, my mom calls me that she had just arrived to the place and she saw my oldest sister laying on the floor,” Alex Silva told CBS Chicago.
Arleth Silva, his younger sister, was also present and was shot twice in the leg and once in the lung.
“It looked like she was trying to walk or go help my older sister, and when she tried, she got hit,” Alex Silva said.
Alex travelled to Mexico to return to Warrenville with his injured sister. Melissa Silva, he continued, will be buried in Mexico. A GoFundMe campaign has been set up by the family to help with funeral and hospital costs.
“She was just a hardworking mom,” he said. “She was single. She provided for her kids – anything they needed. She’d give them anything.”
Due to turf warfare between competing gangs involved in drug trafficking and other criminal enterprises, including the trade in stolen fuel, Michoacan and adjacent Guanajuato are two of Mexico’s most dangerous states.
Gunmen assassinated the mayor of a Michoacan hamlet earlier this month. Officials said that unknown assailants shot and killed Aguililla Mayor Cesar Valencia when he was riding in a municipal hall vehicle near a soccer field in the town.
Last month, an armed attack at a wake in the state, thought to be the consequence of a gang feud, claimed the lives of up to 17 individuals.
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