A violent weekend in Puerto Rico resulted in eight reported murders across different municipalities, according to a police report. This brings the total number of homicides on the island to 242 so far in 2026, 24 more than the 218 recorded at the same time last year. The violence began on Friday with the discovery of an unidentified man's body in the San Francisco neighborhood of Arecibo. Later that night, a double murder occurred in front of the Santa Bárbara urbanization in Gurabo, where two men died after a shootout on PR-189.
On Saturday, 17-year-old Jonathan Kidany Torres Jiménez was shot and killed in the parking lot of the Meridian Tower residential complex in Trujillo Alto. Also on Saturday, 34-year-old Xavier Hernández Acevedo was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds on PR-682 in Barceloneta. Another unidentified man was found dead with gunshot and stab wounds near the Jesús T. Piñero avenue in Hato Rey.
The seventh victim was 51-year-old Rubén A. Rodríguez Ocasio, who was shot in front of the El Millenium business in Río Piedras and later died from his injuries. The eighth victim, a man between 40 and 50 years old, was shot and killed at the intersection of Monserrate and Del Carmen streets in Santurce on Sunday. The police are investigating all eight cases.