Aldo Gutiérrez, one of the students, was shot in the head. The first emergency call was made at 9:48 p.m. While students tried to help Gutiérrez police officers shot at them, wounding another student’s hand as a bullet cut off several fingers. As he tried to protect himself behind a vehicle two policemen ran to him and beat him. A third student was shot in the arm.
Paramedics were able to take three injured students to the hospital, while another one was taken for medical attention after suffering an asthma attack.
“They all felt confusion, terror, and helplessness,” wrote the panel about the night of the attack.
At around 10:50 p.m. students were taken away in six or seven police cars.
Besides the students, other seemingly random killings took place in the same night.
The report said a group of high school soccer players were heading home at about 11:15 p.m. On the road, 7 miles outside the city of Iguala, gunmen opened fire on the bus. One soccer player and the driver were killed. Passing cars were also fired at, killing a 40-year-old woman in a taxi.
According to the report, witnesses said the gunmen included policemen, and ballistic tests found that some of the weapons used belonged to the Iguala local police department.
Meanwhile, the students who hid from police and were not taken with the other 43 students began to emerge from their hiding places at about 11:00 p.m., after the police left.
The students attempted to record evidence of the shooting, while trying to get in touch with their classmates. A little after midnight, a spontaneous news conference had just begun when three men jumped out of their vehicles and began shooting, killing two young men.
Hours later, the body of another student, Julio César Mondragón, who had been at the news conference was found with his facial skin and muscles torn away from his head, while his skull was fractured in several areas, and with damaged internal organs.
Investigators said his body “shows the level of atrocities committed that night.”
The report also noted that one victim sent a message to his parents from his mobile phone hours after he had supposedly been killed.
The U.S. State Department commended the group of experts for their investigation.
“We trust the Mexican authorities will carefully consider the report’s recommendations, evaluate suggested actions to address the issue of forced disappearances, provide support to the victims’ families, and continue their efforts to bring the perpetrators of this terrible crime to justice,” said spokesperson John Kirby in a statement.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
