A student died and another was injured this Friday when a man shot at a group of Agricultural Sciences students on a university campus located in the interior of Panama.
“They inform me that An unknown person opened fire on a group of Agricultural Sciences students from the Veraguas Regional University Center, who were in a field practice on the grounds of the Regional Center. They report to me one deceased and one injured,” the rector wrote in his X account.
“This person against whom they attacked possibly has grudges against other criminal groups, which produces these regrettable criminal acts,” reported Deputy Commissioner Héctor Delgado in a video on the Panamanian police’s X social network account about the first hypotheses of the case.
Delgado confirmed that a second person was injured and taken to the hospital, although his life is out of danger.
The police maintain a strict operation in the area to arrest the perpetrators of the shooting, while the prosecutor’s office began the first investigations.
“The competent authorities were immediately called and they are here to carry out the investigations and determine, well, all the details about the incident (…) it is something that has happened for the first time and we hope it will be the last time that occurs on the premises of our institution,” said Samaniego.
The regional media La Voz de Veraguas also indicated that both the deceased and the injured are first-year students at the Regional University Center.
Panama recorded a total of 556 homicides in 2023, 11% more than in 2022, according to statistics from the Public Ministry (MP, Prosecutor’s Office), which place Veraguas among the most peaceful of the country’s 10 provinces, with 7 and 9 cases, respectively.
Between the first four months of this year, 181 homicides have occurred in Panama, 3% or 6 of them in Veraguas, according to data from the Prosecutor’s Office.
Panamanian authorities attribute more than 70% of homicides to organized crime groups linked to gangs and drug trafficking.
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