The Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) is considering several hypotheses regarding the violent death of former Guatemalan soccer player and current coach of Deportivo San Pedro, of the First Division, Julio Ariz “el Loco” Leiva, who was shot to death this Sunday, August 18, prior to the match that his team was to play in La Democracia, Huehuetenango, the Prosecutor’s Office reported.
According to local media, the technical director of Deportivo San Pedro was attacked in a restaurant in Huehuetenango where his team was waiting for this afternoon’s match in La Democracia.
The MP detailed that it is investigating an armed incident that occurred in a restaurant, located at kilometer 323 of the Camojallito village, La Candelaria sector, in La Democracia, “which resulted in the death of a male person.”
He added that prosecutors and criminal investigation technicians processed the scene and located approximately 19 pieces of evidence, including ballistics, objects and others, which were packaged to form part of the investigation.
“The victim was identified by eyewitnesses as Julio Ariz Leiva, who served as technical director of the soccer team of the municipality of San Pedro, San Marcos. The prosecutor’s staff carried out various procedures that will help clarify the events, including taking witness statements, interviewing witnesses and conducting patrols to locate video surveillance cameras on the access and exit routes to the crime scene,” said the MP.
The Prosecutor’s Office adds that, according to preliminary information, “at approximately 12:00 hours, three male individuals wearing vests with which they pretended to possibly belong to the National Civil Police, entered the restaurant to speak with the victim, and upon leaving said business they fired shots, attacking Ariz Leiva directly, and then fled.”
He also said that several hypotheses are being investigated and that investigations are continuing “with the aim of establishing the motive for the attack.”
The details of the prosecution’s hypothesis were not revealed so as not to affect the course of the investigation.
Aris Leiva played for more than a decade in the top tier of Guatemalan football with the clubs Marquense, Xelajú, Petapa, Zacapa and Heredia, among others.
Guatemala recorded a total of 4,361 murders in 2023, 2% more than in 2022, based on official data from the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (Inacif).
Among the victims of violence so far in 2024 in Guatemala are singer Farruko Pop, a municipal mayor, the mother and bodyguard of a prosecutor, and a pregnant woman leaving a concert by Colombian singer Karol G.
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