At least four people were killed and another eight were wounded, including two minors, local media reported.
The head of the National Police in Manabí, Patricio Almendáriz, reported in a press conference that at least five people carried out the attack. The criminals used long guns and handguns to shoot indiscriminately inside the funeral home where the wake was being held.
The mayor of Manta, Agustín Intriago, said that what happened Thursday is “terror” that goes beyond settling scores and everything that can be called ‘organized crime issues.’”
“Ecuador Ministry of Government, Ecuador Ministry of Defense, your intervention is urgent right now in this city. So that what is going on in the rest of the country [does] not happen here. Not with innocents, by God,” the archbishop said on social media.
In his message to ACI Prensa, Castillo urged that “we never get used to the suffering of our brothers despite the fact that there seems to be no end to crime.”
“Let us feel what happens to others as if it happened to us. And that not a day goes by that we stop praying for peace and for an end to so much irrational violence. The Lord will not abandon us,” he concluded.