A New Yorker visiting Puerto Rico to attend a Bad Bunny concert was killed by a stray bullet on the island early Sunday, authorities said.
Kevin Mares, 25, was an innocent bystander who was at a nightclub when gunfire erupted, police said.
Several people who happened to be near Mares began arguing and one person pulled a gun and started shooting about 4:10 a.m., according to investigators.
Two siblings, Miguel Melendez Beltran, 46, and Keila Melendez Beltran, 45, were wounded in the shooting but survived, Telemundo Puerto Rico reported. They are both residents of the island.
Mares was visiting Puerto Rico for a Bad Bunny concert, two of his friends told police. The Puerto Rican native is in the middle of a 30-show residency in San Juan, which has attracted thousands of visitors to the city.
Mares was shot in the left abdomen and pronounced dead at Puerto Rico’s largest hospital, authorities said. Beyond that, detective Arnaldo Ruiz said police “have very little information.”
The shooting erupted at a club called Refugio de Hombres Maltratados (Shelter for Mistreated Men) in La Perla, a seaside town on San Juan’s north side, police said.
For decades, La Perla was known as a particularly dangerous neighborhood, such that even police reportedly avoided it. However, a federal raid in 2011 led to dozens of arrests and the conviction of a local community leader.
But there have still been violent incidents in recent years. In 2021, a tourist from Delaware was killed and his body was torched; police said he was trying to take pictures in the neighborhood after being warned against it.
And in 2023, three tourists were stabbed in the neighborhood after police said they were attempting to film a short video.
With News Wire Services
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