U.S. Officials Shot In Caracas Nightclub
Two U.S. officials were shot in a Caracas nightclub early Tuesday, hospital officials in Venezuela said.
The two members of the U.S. embassy suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the Caracas shooting, though more details were not available.
The officials work at the embassy in Caracas, though it wasn’t clear which agency they work for. A spokesman from the U.S. State Department confirmed that the members were shot, but said they worked for another department.
Attending physician Dr. Carlos Pacheco said the U.S. officials were shot in northeast Caracas, one of them suffering a gunshot wound to the abdomen and the other to the abdomen and leg.
“Medical staff inform us that their injuries do not appear to be life-threatening,” said State Department spokesman William Ostick. “Embassy security and health unit personnel are at the hospital and have been in touch with the two individuals and their families.”
A spokesman didn’t give details about what kind of establishment the two were attending, but said it was “some sort of social spot or somewhere outside of the embassy grounds.”
“I am not sure if it was a restaurant, or a nightclub, or what the actual establishment was, but that is why we are in touch with embassy personnel,” said spokesman Patrick Ventrell.
The club is reportedly located in the basement of a shopping center in an upper-middle-class neighborhood. The Associated Press reported that the night club in question advertised photos of scantily clad women pole dancing and posing inside cages. One photo caption promised a “sexy show” for the club’s visitors.
“Apparently it was a fight originating in a nightspot where these people were attacked and shots were fired at them and they suffered gunshot wounds,” police spokesman Douglas Rico told television channel Globovision.
Police identified one of the U.S. officials shot in Caracas as military attaché Roberto Ezequiel Rosas. The name of the other victim was not released, and no arrests have been made in the case.
