Simon Hunter
POLICE in the Madrid region are investigating two shootings in the space of just 24 hours that left a 21-year-old man and a 19-year-old male dead.
The first killing came in the early hours of Sunday morning, when a 19-year-old Venezuelan known as “Bori” was shot in the head in the satelite city of Alcorcón. Police stated yesterday that they were following “all possible lines of investigation”, including possible links to youth gangs.
Local residents, however, had no doubts and told Spanish daily El País that the victim was a member of the Latin Kings gang and that the attackers were from rivals Dominicans Don’t Play.
Police were alerted to a disturbance by a neighbour at just gone 6am on Sunday, after a series of shots rang out, reportedly from a car. Emergency crews found the victim on the ground and was dead from a gunshot wound to the head when they arrived.
In what appears to have been a revenge attack, at 6am on Monday morning a 21-year-old man of Dominican nationality was shot dead in the nearby city of Fuenlabrada. Three other people were injured in the shooting.
Police sources told El País that the attackers arrived at a nightclub dressed in black and wearing hoods and balaclavas. One was carrying a machete and the other a pistol. The victim has not been named but his initials are S. H. He was shot and attacked with the blade, while one of the men injured was also shot. The remaining two had cuts to their shoulders. Two of the injured men were 18 years old while the other was 31.
Latin gangs are a major concern for the authorities in Madrid. In neighbourhoods where the problem is particularly serious, the police have deployed units aimed at preventing this kind of organised violence.
A recent survey of parents and teachers in some of these areas found that Latin gangs are considered to be the biggest danger for teenagers. Dominicans Don’t Play and the Trinitarios are reportedly the most active in Madrid, and have been behind the most serious recent incidents in the city and region.
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