Carlos Manzo was holding his son while leading his city through its colourful Day of the Dead celebrations.
The mayor of Uruapan, in the western Mexican state of Michoacán, was filmed wearing a sombrero wishing everyone a ‘nice evening’ just moments before he was shot on Saturday evening.
Footage captured the moment the candlelit festival became a scene of terror as crowds ran for their lives and the city’s leader was seen bleeding on the ground.
He was rushed to hospital where he later died, said the state prosecutor Carlos Torres Piña.
The mayor been an outspoken critic of organised crime and was frequently seen wearing a bulletproof vest.
Three suspects were identified, two of which were arrested and the third dead, the security ministry said.
President Claudia Sheinbaum condemned the ‘vile’ attack and called for justice to be served.
She wrote on X: ‘We reaffirm our commitment to deploy all the State’s efforts to achieve peace and security with zero impunity and full justice.’
Mr Manzo had previously called on the government to go further to tackle organised crime, while expressing fears for his own personal security.
He asked in an interview in September: ‘How many mayors haven’t they killed because they opposed making these pacts with organized crime?’
In a tearful address, Mr Manzo’s wife Grecia Quiroz García said he had only ‘dared to speak the truth’.
She said: ‘They didn’t kill the president of Uruapan, they killed the best president of Mexico. The only one who dared always speak the truth, without fear for his family or for leaving his children orphaned.’
Formerly a member of Sheinbaum’s Morena party, Mr Manzo ran last year as an independent candidate.
His region, Michoacán, has a garnered something of a reputation for bloody crime with drug barons fighting to control smuggling routes.
Tensions became frayed at the mayor’s funeral, where mourners heckled Michoacán governor Alfredo Ramirez Bedolla, a member of Sheinbaum’s governing party.
Some in the procession chanted: ‘Justice, justice. Out with Morena.’
Actor Victor Trujillo said the president needed to ‘look and listen’ to the frustration from ordinary people.
He wrote on X: ‘Look and listen, Claudia. It’s not the hypocritical conservatives who are throwing out your governor from Mayor Carlos Manzo’s funeral. It’s good and wise people.
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‘Look at that mirror. That business of pretending to implant chaos and normalize it tears away any investiture.’
Christopher Landau, the US ambassador to Mexico, reaffirmed his country’s commitment to help tackle organised crime on both sides of the border.
He wrote: ‘On this All Souls’ Day, my thoughts are with the family and friends of Carlos Manzo, mayor of Uruapan, Michoacán, Mexico, who was assassinated at a public Day of the Dead celebration last night.
‘The US stands ready to deepen security cooperation with Mexico to wipe out organized crime on both sides of the border.’
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