Shootout in one of Mexico's wealthiest neighborhoods left a 19-year-old university student dead and two others missing

Shootout in one of Mexico's wealthiest neighborhoods left a 19-year-old university student dead and two others missing, a Monterrey police spokesman said Monday.The group of friends had just left an exclusive club in the northern city of Monterrey before dawn Sunday when attackers opened fire on their Mercedes Benz. That sparked a high-speed chase through the exclusive San Pedro district. The car crashed in an underpass, said the police spokesman, who was not authorized to give his name.
One passenger was killed, but three others walked away unharmed. The car's driver and front-seat passenger were missing. It was unclear if they fled the scene or had been kidnapped.Officials had no motive in the shootout.Mexico has seen a sharp rise in violent homicides, with more than 5,300 people killed in organized-crime slayings in the first 11 months of 2008. Kidnappings have also jumped, but many go unreported for fear that police involvement will put the victim at risk.Also Monday, prosecutors in Chihuahua state reported that the head of a police commander was found in a plastic foam cooler left outside a police station in Praxedis G. Guerrero, near the border city of Ciudad Juarez.Police found the cooler on Sunday, and next to the cooler was a message signed by "La Linea," a crime and drug gang. The prosecutors' statement did not reveal the contents of the note.And in Tijuana, a city police officer was hospitalized Monday with gunshot wounds after attackers opened fire on his car.