crime

Shot and run over

Police are investigating the assassination of Panamanian Tovares Quintana, 37.

la prensa

Alfonso Tovares987311

Authorities believe rival gangs trying to settle a pending dispute are responsible for the death of Panamanian Abdiel Alfonso Tovares Quintana, 37, whose dismembered body was found on Tuesday with three bullets in it, and signs that he was run over by a speeding car.

The autopsy revealed that the leg found on the Corredor Sur and the rest of the body found in Pedregal belong to Tovares.

He was shot once in the face and twice in the shoulder, police said. Gray duct tape was found around his head and wrists. His body was probably run over to cause the separation of one of his limbs.

Authorities are considering the hypothesis that Tovares was captured by assassins and managed to escape around the area of the Corredur Sur before being run over by a car on the highway.

Richard Kennedy Hernández, who confessed to having run over Quintana in the Corredor Sur, is being considered a suspect in the crime because his version of events did not match those of others also implicated in this case.

Police reports indicate that Tovares was involved in four murders and was sentenced to prison in 1999 on charges of having assaulted and robbed, along with accomplices, an armored truck containing half a million dollars.

The half million dollars was never recovered, police said. Tovares was released in 2005.

Police have linked him to a gang in San Joaquín called Los Perros and with a group of drug smugglers.

His girlfriend told police she last saw Tovares leaving the house on Monday at 8:30 p.m. in a Mitsubishi truck, which was found near the Corredor Sur.