SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A vacationer from New York who was visiting Puerto Rico for Unhealthy Bunny’s residency was fatally shot early Sunday at La Perla, a well-liked seaside shantytown, police mentioned.
The sufferer was recognized as Kevin Mares, a 25-year-old, in accordance with a police assertion.
The taking pictures occurred within the predawn hours at a nightspot known as “Shelter for Mistreated Males” in La Perla, a coastal neighborhood that has struggled to shed its darkish status.
Murder detective Sgt. Arnaldo Ruiz mentioned in a telephone interview that the taking pictures befell when a number of individuals close to Mares started arguing and one pulled out a gun and shot no less than three individuals, together with Mares. Two different males who dwell in La Perla had been injured and stay hospitalized.
Ruiz mentioned Mares was an harmless bystander. He was with three different mates who advised police they had been in Puerto Rico for one in every of Unhealthy Bunny’s 30 live shows, which have attracted tens of 1000’s of holiday makers to the U.S. territory.
Mares was shot on the left facet of his stomach and was taken to Puerto Rico’s largest public hospital, the place he died, authorities mentioned.
Ruiz mentioned police do not but know what the individuals had been arguing about and do not have an outline of the shooter. “We now have little or no info,” he mentioned.
Ruiz added that Mares’ three mates additionally had been from New York. He did not have their hometowns.
La Perla is positioned on the outskirts of a historic district fashionable with vacationers generally known as Previous San Juan. A pair hundred individuals dwell within the shantytown, which as soon as served as Puerto Rico’s greatest distribution level for heroin and was recognized for its violence.
Police used to keep away from the neighborhood, which used to have an indication proclaiming, “Not open to guests. Don’t enter.”
However violence eased when tons of of federal brokers raided the slum in 2011 and arrested dozens of individuals, together with a widely known neighborhood chief who was later convicted.
An aerial view of the seaside neighborhood of La Perla, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is seen on Aug. 25, 2017.
AP Picture/Ricardo Arduengo, File
The neighborhood grew to become even safer and extra welcoming after Puerto Rican singers Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee featured it of their hit, “Despacito.”
However remoted, violent incidents persist.
In February 2023, three vacationers had been stabbed after police mentioned an individual advised them to cease filming contained in the neighborhood.
Then in April 2024, a 24-year-old vacationer from Delaware was killed and his physique set on hearth after police mentioned he and a pal had been attacked following a drug buy. Police mentioned the victims had been attempting to take photos of La Perla after being warned not to take action.
The island of three.2 million individuals has reported 277 killings to date this yr, in contrast with 325 killings in the identical interval final yr.
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