QUITO: Five people were killed in a shooting at a pool hall in western Ecuador, police said Saturday — the latest homicides in a country struggling through a bloody wave of drug gang violence.
Three men got out of a van and opened fire at the hall in Santo Domingo, located about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the capital Quito, a police official said, describing the incident as a “dispute between organized crime groups.”
Beyond the five people killed, one more was wounded, the official told local news outlet Alfa & Omega.
Similar killings have occurred at pool halls in Santo Domingo in recent months.
Nestled between the world’s biggest cocaine producers, Colombia and Peru, a growing gang presence has turned once-peaceful Ecuador into the country with South America’s highest homicide rate, according to the InSight Crime think tank.
