Mexican activist slain during radio broadcast

Two gunmen shoved their way into a radio studio and opened fire on a local activist, killing him while he was broadcasting, prosecutors in the Mexican state of Sinaloa said. It was the first on-air killing in recent memory in Mexico.
Listeners heard the gunshot that killed Atilano Roman Tirado, who had a weekly radio program as well as leading a group of farm families displaced by a dam.
"On air you could hear when the shot is fired, and then one of the co-workers is heard saying, 'Oh no, he killed him, he killed him,'" station director Sergio Ontiveros said yesterday.

"That is when the transmission cut off ... The station operator dove to the floor and kicked out the master" cable, Ontiveros said.
The Fiesta Mexicana station in the Pacific coast city of Mazatlan was off air for about a half hour, and was operated remotely over the weekend before resuming normal operations on Monday morning.
Roman Tirado was a leader of about 800 families demanding compensation for being displaced by the Picachos dam.

In past years, the movement had staged blockades and protest marches, which had resulted in some arrests. Ontiveros said Roman Tirado focused on the land dispute and other news in his program, "Asi es mi Tierra" roughly "That's how my land is."

"He was militant in his commentaries, he was critical, very critical," Ontiveros noted. "His situation almost demanded that of him."
Sinaloa state prosecutors said two men walked into the station Saturday and asked for Roman Tirado. One of the men waited outside the studio where Roman Tirado was broadcasting while the other walked into the studio and shot him.
"They violently forced their way in," Ontiveros said. "They asked for Atilano. The receptionist said he was there and said if they waited, she would tell him they wanted to see him," Ontiveros said. "But they pushed open the door and forced their way in to the studios."

The assailants hit another employee with the butt of a pistol, then shot Roman Tirado in the head and in the chest with a 9 mm pistol. He died later at a local hospital.
Sinaloa Gov Mario Lopez Valdez said that the killing would not go unpunished, but officials had reported no arrests on Monday. State prosecutor Marco Antonio Higuera said the station offices did not have security cameras that might have recorded the killing.