A Venezuelan drug gang that fired on a funeral ceremony killed eight people as a family mourned a rival gang member shot days earlier, police said today.
Bullet holes pock-marked the wooden coffin after the attackers pumped more than 100 rounds into the house in El Encantado barrio in eastern Caracas where the wake was held yesterday. Two people were also wounded.
"They opened fire on everyone who was there. They had all types of handguns and revolvers," a local police spokesman said. We believe it was part of a fight between two gangs for control of drug turf."
Violent crime is common in the poor, sprawling shanty neighborhoods that ring Caracas and revenge killings account for many of the 30 or so murders that occur every weekend in the Venezuelan capital.