Costa Rica’s Johnny’s Place Nightclub Closed Indefinitely Following Weekend Shooting

Johnny’s Place, a beloved institution in the southern Caribbean beach town of Puerto Viejo known for its reggaeton and R&B DJs, has closed following a shooting early Sunday morning. Club owner Johnny León says it might be for good.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, a man pulled out a gun and opened fire inside the bar, wounding five people, according to Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ).

The victims were named as Ditier Castro, 21; Darcy Zaira Romero, 47; Raul Enrique Moraga, 24; Carlos Vaz Mcleod, whose age wasn’t specified; and his mother, Icylin Mcleod.

Some of the wounded piled into a car and headed for the nearby Hone Creek Clinic, in Talamanca. On the way, their car struck pedestrian Andrei Medrano, a private security guard who now is in critical condition at the Calderón Guardia Hospital, in San José. The five shooting victims were taken to Tony Facio Hospital in Limón, where they are in stable condition, according to OIJ spokesman Marco Monje.

The shooter fled the scene, and police did not immediately make an arrest. Monje said the apparent motive for the shooting was personal problems between the suspect and one of the victims.

Only two policemen were on duty in the area, according León, who said he spoke at length with police officers and provided them with videos from security cameras. Based on those videos, police identified the suspect, León told The Tico Times.

In the past few years, increases in robberies, home invasions and violent attacks in the southern Caribbean, coupled with a shortage of police resources and manpower, have prompted local hotel and business owners and residents to rally behind community policing and victims’ assistance initiatives.

Source: Tico Times