Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Juárez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz spoke Monday during a news conference in Juárez. (Rudy Gutierrez / El Paso Times)

JUAREZ -- Juárez officials are taking steps to ensure that its police officers are not the targets of any more attacks after four officers were killed late Sunday night when gunmen targeted and ambushed police officers in four separate shootings.

A fifth officer remains in critical condition and is under protection at the hospital, Juárez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz said during a Monday news conference.

"In two of the attacks we were able to fight back and kill one of the attackers and injure others," Reyes Ferriz said. "This is the first time police stations have been the targets of the attacks and we are now taking the steps necessary to make sure this doesn't happen again."

Reyes Ferriz said among the changes being made:
- City police patrol units will now have three-person teams, instead of two.

- Eight neighborhood police watch stations that were staffed by lone officers have been closed.

- The commander of the Aldama Police District, where all four of Sunday's attacks occurred, has been temporarily taken off duty. The Aldama district includes most of Downtown Juárez, including Avenida Juárez and the area around the Chamizal National Park.

- Protection is being provided to 28 officers whose names appeared Monday on a new list of potential targets.

"The priority right now is to protect all of our officers, including the 28 on the list," Reyes Ferriz said. "All of them are getting the support they need to protect themselves."

Forty-one Juárez city police officers have now been killed as part of the year-long drug war that has gripped Juárez. The number of state and federal police officers who have been killed is not available. Overall, more than 1,500 people in Juárez have been killed this year and the majority of them are attributed to the ongoing drug war being staged in the border city by two cartels.

All of the Sunday night-Monday morning attacks on the police stations occurred around midnight, officials said.

Two of the officers were killed when gunmen attacked a small police guard station in the parking lot of the general hospital. A third officer was killed when he was ambushed while sitting in his patrol car near the Chamizal National Park.

The fourth officer was killed while inside a neighborhood police shack.

Reyes Ferriz said gunmen also shot up the Aldama district police station, which is at the foot of the Paso del Norte Bridge, but did not hit anyone.

The attacks on the police officers were separate from the slayings of four men who were killed sometime overnight and found early Monday morning at the Juárez dog racing track, officials said. The five men who were killed Monday have not been identified. One of them was decapitated.