Police have arrested three men in connection with the killing of a student who died on his 17th birthday during a carjacking in the Colonia Miguel de la Madrid neighborhood of Guadalajara, near Ciudad Bugambilias.
Blas Ali Saras, a student at the private Thomas Jefferson high school, was shot in the abdomen shortly after he celebrated his birthday with his mother and sister at a pizzeria on Lopez Mateos Sur. The three were intercepted in his mother’s Mazda CX5 while en route to his godfather’s house where they planned to share a cake.
Saras followed orders to get out of the back of the vehicle but received a fatal shot as one of the carjackers struggled to remove his watch. The men fled the scene after the shooting, leaving the vehicle behind.
Saras’ mother rushed her son to the nearby Puerto de Hierro hospital but he died after two days in intensive care.
Saras had recently returned to Guadalajara from Japan after living there with his family for several years. He was a very bright student, spoke five languages and wanted to be a pilot like his father.
Ironically, Blas was in the middle of a school project about protocols to follow during a criminal assault.
Four days after the crime, Jalisco Attorney General Eduardo Almaguer announced that two men – identified only as Agustín “N” y José Alfredo Valencia “N” – had been arrested and fully identified by the surviving victims. He said they were known locally for their anti-social behavior and were under the influence of drugs at the time of the attack. Almaguer said it was unlikely they actually intended to steal the vehicle and were probably only interested in belongings. A third man was arrested the following day.
Almaguer also noted that Colonia Miguel de la Madrid is not considered a crime hotspot, although he beefed up vigilance in the zone in the aftermath of the incident.
More than 250 people, including Saras’ classmates, paid their final respects to their relative and friend at the Colonias funeral home on Avenida Vallarta. Some family members were angry at what had transpired and expressed their opinions to reporters.
“The governor of Jalisco tells us day after day that this is a safe city but this illustrates that it isn’t,” Saras’ father told Mural.
Following the funeral, family members released white doves into the sky.
“I hope no one else ever has to go through this pain,” Saras’ mother said. “”It’s not fair.”