Nuevo Laredo, Mexico ? Alejandro Dominguez was the only person brave enough to be police chief. Hours after he took office, assailants riddled his body with dozens of bullets in this city wracked by a turf battle between Mexico’s two main drug gangs.

The streets were virtually empty Thursday, a day after the killing, with only a handful of federal police armed with rifles and automatic weapons making routine patrols in pickup trucks and army vehicles.

“We are defenseless,” attorney Zorina Medrano said at City Hall. “It’s obvious that the criminals are better organized (than the authorities). They sent the national army and even they weren’t respected. Who else can we ask for help?”

Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas, is the busiest border crossing for cargo trucks heading to the United States from Mexico.

But frequent shootouts have virtually halted the flood of U.S. tourists who normally pour over the border to drink, shop for arts and crafts, and visit the red-light district.

Since January, more than 60 people were killed in this city of nearly 350,000, including Dominguez and six other police officials. A man and a woman were shot around midnight in the continuing violence.

The United States has warned tourists and others to be careful in the border region, and U.S. officials have said the violence could threaten trade.

Dominguez, 52, knew the odds – but thought he could beat them.

“I don’t owe anybody anything,” he said before taking office. “My duty is to the citizenry. I think those who should be afraid are those who have been compromised.”

Officials said they had no suspects in Dominguez’s death, although the assault rifles used were similar to those popular among drug hit men.

The former police chief left his post in early May to become City Council secretary. City officials searched for weeks before hiring Dominguez, the leader of the local chamber of commerce and a former anti-drug official at the federal attorney general’s office.

Dominguez was the only applicant for the job, which many saw as a death sentence.