In the city of Colón, a member of the national football team of Panama was fatally shot.
Gilberto Hernández, 26, was among a group of people who had gathered in a building in the city when gunmen started shooting at them.
Hernández died and seven others were injured in the attack.
It is still unclear whether the footballer, who also played for Club Atlético Independiente, was the intended target of the shooting or what the attacker’s intentions were.
As two rival gangs battle for control of lucrative drug smuggling routes, there has been an increase in murders in Colón over the past few months.
Colón, a city of 40,000 inhabitants, has already seen more than 50 fatalities this year.
Cocaine smuggled from South America through Panama to Europe passes through the port city at the canal’s northern entrance.
The shooting happened on Sunday afternoon local time.
In the city’s Barrio Norte neighborhood, two armed men forced a taxi driver to drive them to a building where they opened fire on the crowd gathered.
The shooters fled the scene.
Gilberto Hernández made his international debut for Panama in a match against Guatemala in March of this year.
The player’s father pleaded with Colón’s youth to “to stop the violence” and urged the authorities to “launch projects to save the youth from this violence”.
He also asked the killers to hand themselves in: “Don’t cause more harm.”
Gilberto Hernández’s club and the football federation of Panama both sent their condolences to the Hernández family.
Source-BBC
