A shooting at Cafetería Zoila, on Calle Robles in Río Piedras, left three people dead and eight injured at about 2:57 AM on Sunday, according to the Puerto Rico Police. An argument inside the business may have set it off.
Edwin Figueroa Maldonado, director of the San Juan Criminal Investigations Corps (CIC), said two people died inside the business and a third ran out wounded and died on the sidewalk. Of the injured, one has been discharged and seven remain in the hospital, one of them in critical condition. Police have not named a suspect, and the victims’ names are being withheld until their families are notified; Figueroa said that if the preliminary identifications are confirmed, none of them had a criminal record.
San Juan Municipal Police Commissioner Juan Jackson told El Nuevo Día that the business was operating in violation of the Public Order Code, keeping its roll-up doors closed and using a back door that leads to some apartments. Municipal police had cited the cafeteria several times; in July it was fined $6,400 for selling alcohol after hours, a case now under review. Two neighbors said activity there often runs into the early morning and that they had told the authorities, but nothing was done.