Gunmen kill six in cevichería shooting in Guatemala City, Guatemala.
NEWS:
Gunmen opened fire inside a cevichería in Guatemala City’s Zone 6, killing six people and injuring two others, including a 5-year-old child, authorities and emergency responders reported.
The attack happened on Monday, April 20, 2026, at a business operating as a cevichería near 18th Avenue and 8th Street in Zone 6 of the Guatemalan capital. Emergency crews reported that five people were found dead at the scene from gunshot wounds. A sixth victim died after being taken to the General San Juan de Dios Hospital.
Initial reports from emergency responders said the dead included four men and two women. Two other people were injured: a 5-year-old boy and an adult man. Municipal firefighters said the wounded were taken in serious condition for medical treatment.
Security video from the business shows armed men entering the restaurant and firing inside while people are seated at tables. The footage shows the attackers moving into the dining area and shooting toward people inside the business. The video confirms the armed assault inside the cevichería, but it does not establish the motive, the full identity of the attackers or the planning behind the crime.
The child wounded in the attack survived. The hospital later reported that he was oriented and stable after doctors performed examinations and treated the affected area. Officials said the procedure involved cleaning and disinfecting the wound area, not a major operation.
The boy’s father, Domingo Isaías Boch Muz, died after arriving at the emergency room because of severe wounds to the abdomen and chest, according to hospital information later reported in the case. The boy’s mother, Kimberly Pérez Ramos, died at the cevichería.
Police and prosecutors treated the case as a homicide investigation. Investigators processed the scene, reviewed video evidence and worked to identify the people responsible. No motive was confirmed in the first reports.
Witness information reported to police indicated that several attackers arrived on motorcycles and entered the business with firearms. That account remains attributed to witness statements and police reporting. The security video confirms the entry and shooting inside the restaurant, but it does not independently verify every detail about how the attackers arrived or fled.
Early reports also mentioned that at least three of the dead worked as tuc-tuc drivers and were from San Antonio Las Flores. That detail was based on statements from relatives and acquaintances who arrived at the scene, not on a final official identification record released in the first hours after the attack.
The shooting was not the only violent incident reported in Zone 6 around the same period. Another armed attack near the San Martín de Porres market injured two men. Police said that second attack may have targeted a mototaxi driver and that investigators were not ruling out a connection to extortion. That separate case was not the same shooting as the cevichería massacre.
Two days after the cevichería attack, police announced a large operation against criminal structures. Authorities reported more than two dozen arrests during raids carried out in several departments, with police units and prosecutors involved. The operation targeted crimes including extortion, murder, unlawful association, illegal firearm possession and obstruction linked to extortion of transport services.
One detainee, identified by police as Jesús Alejandro López, 29, known by the aliases “Chus” and “Pelón,” was initially presented by the PNC as a possible person connected to recent armed attacks in Zone 6. Police described him as an alleged MS-13 gunman and said he was wanted on charges including unlawful association, murder and obstruction linked to extortion.
That point became disputed. The Public Ministry later said it was incorrect to report that the detainee was one of the alleged perpetrators of the recent Zone 6 violence. Prosecutors said the cevichería investigation remained under the Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes Against Life and Personal Integrity, which was still carrying out steps to identify those responsible. Because of that contradiction, the detainee’s direct link to the cevichería shooting cannot be stated as confirmed.
Police later said preliminary lines of investigation pointed to a dispute involving criminal structures in Zone 6. Officials also said the broader wave of violence in the area involved clashes tied to drug dealing and extortion. Those claims remain attributed to authorities and investigative reporting, not to a court finding.
A later police account linked the violence in Zone 6 to a struggle involving Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18. Authorities said dozens of killings had been recorded in the area over two months and that investigators were working on multiple cases connected to that conflict. The cevichería shooting was cited as one of the attacks under that broader investigative line.
No final conviction or judicial ruling was reported in the materials reviewed. The confirmed facts are that armed men entered the cevichería and opened fire, six people were killed, two were wounded, a child survived the attack, and prosecutors continued working to identify and prosecute those responsible.
News story written by DarkGore.
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