PANAMA CITY, Panama (AP) — Two unidentified gunmen opened fire on a group of students on a rural campus of the University of Panama Friday, killing one and wounding another before escaping, according to police and school officials.
University Rector Eduardo Flores Castro said via the social platform X that agricultural sciences students were doing field work at the university’s regional center in Veraguas about 155 miles (250 kilometers) southwest of the capital when the shooting took place.
Later in a statement, he identified the student who was killed as 27-year-old Álvaro Leones.
“Leones was an outstanding member of our university community, whose academic commitment and spirit of solidarity leave an indelible imprint on the entire university community,” Flores said. He offered condolences to his family and friends.
The director of the regional campus where the shooting occurred, Pedro Samaniego, did not witness the shooting, but was on campus.
Samaniego said a man approached a group of six first-year students around 11 a.m. and opened fire without saying a word.
“We don't have any detail about the (shooter), only that he came in and shot the student and the kids went running and the wounded (student) was shot right in the gluteus,” he said. “Then the person jumped the fence and took off.”
The wounded student was Anel Terreros, the university said.
But later, police Deputy Commission Héctor Delgado, who is the chief in the Veraguas area, said in a video circulated by the National Police that there had been two shooters who arrived in car before opening fire.
Prosecutor Héctor Navarro said in a recorded statement that no suspects had yet been identified.
The wounded student was hospitalized.
A law enforcement official who requested anonymity in order to discuss an ongoing investigation said that no one was in custody.
The regional prosecutor’s office said via X that it was investigating a homicide on the campus.
