Emergency Meeting Called After Puerto Rico Mass Shooting

6 killed Monday, following the killing of 2 others Sunday
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 15, 2019 4:32 PM CDT
Emergency Meeting Called After Puerto Rico Mass Shooting
A couple of neighbors talk next to a strand of police tape as investigators in the background recover the bodies at the scene of a multiple killing in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2019. WARNING: NEXT PHOTOS ARE GRAPHIC.   (AP Photo/Dennis M. Rivera Pichardo)

Puerto Rico's governor called an emergency meeting Tuesday after six people were killed in a mass shooting in a San Juan housing project and gunfire left two people dead a day earlier in the island's north, the AP reports. Automatic weapon fire and screams could be heard in videos circulating on social media of Monday's shootout at the Río Piedras project. A police statement said the violence left five men and one woman dead. It followed the killing of two people Sunday in the city of Guaynabo. The brazen murders led Gov. Wanda Vázquez to convene a gathering of her security team, led by public security chief Elmer Román and justice secretary Dennise Longo Quiñones.

After Tuesday's meeting, Román said the National Guard would not be activated because a police reform requires officers to have training that Guard members don't have. He said increased air and land patrols were discussed, along with reinforcing social programs. "We're going to see more patrols while this case is clarified," he said. "There will be security and control." Officials said a patrol assigned to the Rio Piedras residence was not there at the time of Monday's shooting but at a nearby housing project. The justice secretary said three prosecutors had been sent to the scene. "This is a complex crime scene," Longo said. "We need the time and space to carry out an exhaustive and thoughtful investigation."

(More Puerto Rico stories.)

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