A player of the Panama national football team was shot dead on Sunday afternoon in the port city of Colón in Panama. Gunmen opened fire on a group of people, including 26-year-old Gilberto Hernández. The footballer died on the spot and seven others were injured in the armed attack.
Two gunmen forced a taxi driver to take them to a building in the city’s Barrio Norte neighborhood and opened fire on the group gathered there. The gunmen fled. A suspect was arrested in a nearby flat, authorities announced on Monday.
Criminal gangs
The shooting was reportedly the result of squabbles between rival criminal gangs.
It is not yet clear whether the footballer, who also played for Club Atlético Independiente de La Chorrera, was the target of the shooting or what the motive was.
Transit point
Murders in Colón have spiked in recent months as two rival gangs vie for control of lucrative drug-smuggling routes. So far this year, more than 50 people have been murdered in the city of 40,000. The port city, at the northern entrance to the Panama Canal, is a transit point for cocaine smuggled from South America through Panama to Europe.
Gilberto Hernández made his debut for the Panamanian national team in March this year in a match against Guatemala.
