All of them are in health homes. A person in critical condition was referred to a Guayaquil hospital.
Babahoyo
A woman and two men have been victims of attacks by unknown subjects when they were in their businesses located in the canton Babahoyo, Los Ríos, this week.
The first person has gunshot wounds to the hip and head and is now in critical condition in a health home in Guayaquil, while the two men are recovering in hospitals in that town in Rio, he said. Colonel of the Los Ríos Subzone Police, William Martínez.
The head of this police unit stated that, according to the investigations carried out, the three people had been threatened in previous days by alleged extortionists. According to the investigations, the subjects perpetrated the violent attacks in order to continue with the intimidation and thus comply with their requests, which in most cases are sums of money in exchange for alleged protection.
Martínez said there are still several hypotheses about both violent acts that are investigated by Unase agents. For now, one of the perpetrators is identified, he added.
These attacks occurred between the morning and afternoon of Wednesday, November 11. The first was in the Mata de Cacao sector, where unknown individuals entered a business and repeatedly shot two brothers (a woman and a man) who were in the premises serving their customers, while the second attack occurred with the night of that same Wednesday against the owner of a gym, located on Avenida Universitaria.
In the latter case, the attacker entered the training center and fired at the coach and owner of the site in the presence of other people. The victim to escape the bullets ran through the site and the projectiles ended up hitting him in the arms, which he used to protect himself. Then the gunman fled the scene aboard a taxi.
The partner of the wounded man indicated that in June of this year they began to be subjected to extortion by unknown individuals who asked them for $ 3,000 to supposedly grant them security, but they gave only $ 300, pressured by an outbreak of fire that occurred in their business and that they consider that it could have been caused by the alleged extortionists.
Despite this, those affected did not file the respective complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office for fear of more attacks.
The Chief of Police of the Los Ríos Subzone No. 12 said that currently members of different criminal organizations that operate in different cantons of the Guayas province, such as Milagro, have also begun to carry out criminal acts in the Rio de Janeiro cantons of Ventanas, Puebloviejo and Vinces.
“In Los Ríos, a few months ago, three criminal organizations operating in the Guayas province were dismantled and now they have migrated to this Rio de Janeiro territory. Regarding the cases of extortion in Babahoyo, there is a detained person who was caught in flagrante delicto in the Puebloviejo canton, but not all the attacks are related to extortion, there are other personal motivations with the victims ”, said the colonel of the subzone. (I)
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