Four people, including one minor, are killed and a further two injured in northwestern Medellin, in what authorities believe to be related to gang retaliations, as well as innocents caught in gang crossfire, Caracol Radio reported Monday.
The three separate incidents occurred in the adjacent neighborhoods of Kennedy and Castilla, with an outbreak of shooting causing many frightened citizens to flee to the safety of their houses.
Two men were seemingly killed in the crossfire, one of them identified as 44-year-old Luis Anibal Montoya Zapata, who had been living in the area for only 15 days. A 51-year-old died in the same incident as he stood at the door of a shop, while a further man remains in critical condition after receiving a bullet to the head.
In a separate incident, a young man under the age of 17 was killed in an alley near the boundary of the two neighborhoods. He was approached by an unknown assailant and shot several times with a gun using a silencer.
The final incident occurred when men in a taxi pulled up to a barbershop in Castilla and attacked too young men who were awaiting their turn. 18-year-old Christian Sepulveda died on his way to hospital, while his friend Pablo Tobon Uribe, 19, was wounded in the arm.
Authorities are investigating the incidents, although initial suspicion has fallen upon the neighborhood gangs. While investigators strongly expect some of the murders to be direct gang retaliations, they are as yet unsure whether those seemingly killed in the crossfire were in any way targeted.
