The two men killed this week in the Mexican border town of Palomas, just four blocks from the Columbus Port of Entry, have been identified as 41-year-old Javier Perez Mendiola, also known as "El Indio," and 28-year-old Adrian Juarez Mendoza, officials told the Deming Headlight.

The men, believed to be Mexican nationals, were pumping gas into a gray Dodge pickup around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday when another vehicle pulled up and fired shots at the pickup, which had Arizona plates and had been reported stolen, Luna County Sheriff's Capt. Arturo Baeza told the Headlight.

Mendiola and Mendoza tried to speed away with the gas nozzle still in the truck, but managed to drive only another 26 to 32 feet, Baeza said he was told by a source in Palomas.

There was no description available of the second vehicle or the shooting suspects, the Headlight reported.

Meanwhile, the Las Cruces Sun-News is reporting that despite three straight weeks of suspected drug-related violence, life goes on in Palomas.

"There is no problem," Palomas businessman Sergio Romero told the Sun-News. "Everything is normal. (What happened Wednesday) are accidents between those types of people."

On Thursday, tourists went back and forth across the border between Palomas and Columbus and didn't seemed to be fazed by the previous day's killings, the Sun-News said.

"I figure if something happened yesterday, they probably have heightened security today," John Lawson of Silver City, who was visiting Palomas with his wife Karna for the first time in five years, told the Sun-News.

Some Palomas residents, who were hesitant to give their names, told the paper they feared for their safety to some degree, but said they didn't worry about being the targets of violence but about being caught in the crossfire. 

The southern New Mexico port of entry at Columbus was closed briefly Wednesday afternoon following the latest outbreak of violence just across the border in Palomas, Mexico, and Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., is urging U.S. and Mexican officials to do something about it, the Albuquerque Journal reported this morning.

Bingaman asked U.S. Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey to assign more agents to be assigned to the Drug Enforcement Administration's Las Cruces office and urged Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan to address escalating drug-related violence along the border, the Journal reported.

Even before the latest killings in Palomas, Bingaman pointed out to the ambassador that there had been 10 killings and as many as 20 kidnappings in the northwestern state of Chihuahua in recent weeks. the Journal said.

Meanwhile, Luna County Sheriff Raymond Cobos and five deputies and investigators sped to Columbus in the wake of three new shooting deaths reported Wednesday in Palomas, the Deming Headlight reported.

"From what we hear, there are at least two or three bodies lying in the street (in Palomas). We're on the way down," Cobos told the Headlight by cell phone en route to Columbus. "Our main focus is to provide whatever security we can for kids getting off school buses."

Students who are American citizens and live in Palomas ride school buses daily from the Columbus Port of Entry to Deming, and there are students from Palomas who attend the Columbus Elementary School, the Headlight reported.

It is the third straight week in which shootings have been reported in Palomas, and the Luna County Sheriff's Office believes there is a turf war raging among gangs struggling for control of the lucrative drug trade, the Headlight reported. 

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