Three American tourists are stabbed in Puerto Rico
Three American tourists are stabbed in Puerto Rico after they were told to stop filming a hamburger cart
- Victims have been identified as 39-year-old Carlos Sanchez Brown, Wallace Florence, 37, and Jackson Tremayne, 38
- Cops found Sanchez Brown videoing the cart and asked him to stop and leave
- Tremayne was stabbed six times and remains in hospital with Brown
Three US tourists were stabbed in Puerto Rico on Monday after police told them to stop filming in the tourist hotspot La Perla famed for appearing in the 2017 music hit ‘Despacito’.
The attack was sparked at around 4AM after one of the victims – Carlos Sanchez Brown, from South Carolina, – started videoing a mobile hamburger cart and was told to leave by cops.
The other two victims have been identified as Wallace Florence, 37, also from South Carolina and Jackson Tremayne, 38, from Georgia.
It comes two years after a tourist from Delaware was killed and set on fire after police said he was warned not to take pictures while buying drugs in La Perla.
FILE – An aerial view of the seaside neighborhood of La Perla, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Aug. 25, 2017. Three U.S. tourists were stabbed in La Perla early Monday, Feb. 6, 2023 after someone told them to stop filming, and two of them remain hospitalized, according to police. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo, File)
Tremayne was stabbed six times and remains in hospital with Brown.
Florence is said to have refused medical attention, reports the New York Post.
Nobody has been arrested.
After initially being told off by cops, the visitors continued to film, municipal commissioner José Juan García told station WAPA-TV.
A suspect described as a fair-skinned man with long white hair allegedly assaulted Florence with a blow to the head, reported Telemundo PR.
The group tried to escape by making their way to the Old San Juan neighborhood but police said they were being followed.
As they reached Imperial Street near the Museum of Art and History, Brown was stabbed in the left forearm.
The knifeman plunged the blade into Tremayne’s body six time, targeting the left side of his chest, abdomen and left arm and back.
La Perla is located in the historic part of Puerto Rico´s capital known as Old San Juan and became famous after it was featured in the video of ‘Despacito,’ a song released in 2017 by Puerto Rican singers Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee.’
The attack came two years after Delaware tourist Tariq Quadir Loat was killed and set on fire after police said he was warned not to take pictures while buying drugs in La Perla.
A friend of his also was beaten but survived.
The community was once a dangerous slum considered the island´s biggest distribution point for heroin, but crime has dropped since a 2011 raid by federal agents.