GUAYAQUIL, ECUADOR — In a year that has been marred with difficulty around the world, the month of November has begun with a horrible mass shooting in Ecuador’s largest city, Guayaquil.
The innocence of a children’s party was shattered around 6:00 p.m. Sunday evening when the home where the event was being held was riddled by gunfire from the street. Local accounts of the incident say that a yellow taxi stopped in front of the home when one or more gunmen opened fire on the house and then fled the scene.
A one-year-old baby and two adults were killed. Eight others, including two children aged 2 and 9, were taken to a local hospital by medics and police. The extent of their injuries and their conditions have not been released by law enforcement or medical authorities.
No suspects are in custody and the motive for the cold-blooded act is not known at this time. The police investigation is continuing.
Guayaquil has been the country’s hardest hit city in the wake of the COVID-19 virus, with as many of two-thirds of Ecuador’s total deaths occurring in the city and surrounding area. At the height of the pandemic in April, freezer units were used to store corpses, cardboard coffins were being used for burials, and a new cemetery was opened to provide the hundreds of additional graves that were needed to bury the dead.
