The assassination of Chief Juan Guerrero days before had been only the first step in Hector Ruvalcaba’s plan to move back into the city. As expected, Juan’s younger brother, Diego, had taken over as de facto chief of police, and though he was weaker than Juan, city officials were determined to support him. So to finish off the last of the police’s determination, Ruvalcaba’s men would storm the station and massacre the entire night shift in a shock-and-awe-style attack. Such a brazen act of violence—not at all uncommon in Mexico—would send a terrifying message to the remainder of the police force, ensuring that Chief Diego Guerrero would be faced with mutiny unless he allowed the Ruvalcabas a free hand in the city. This same terror tactic had been used to great success in many northern border towns, and Hector Ruvalcaba was confident it could work just as well in the South now that Lazaro Serrano was running interference with government officials. To plan the assault, Ruvalcaba had chosen one of his most ruthless killers, a man in his late thirties whom everyone called El Rabioso: the Rabid One.
