Hector Camacho was shot outside the Puerto Rican capital on Tuesday, but doctors now say that despite being in critical condition the former world boxing champion is expected to live.
Police said that Hector Camacho was shot as he sat outside his car in an attack that killed another man in the car with Camacho. At least one gunman opened fire on the vehicle in the city of Bayamon, ESPN reported .
After Hector Camacho was shot, paramedics rushed him to Centro Medico, the trauma center in San Juan, The Associated Press reported . There he was listed in critical but stable condition. Doctors said the bullet struck him in the jaw, exited his head and lodged in his right shoulder.
Though he is expected to survive, Camacho may be paralyzed in the shooting.
“Camacho’s condition is extremely delicate,” Dr. Ernesto Torres told Telenoticias. “His physical condition will help him but we will see.”
Camacho’s representative, Steve Tannenbaum, said friends at the hospital told him that the boxer would make it.
“This guy is a cat with nine lives. He’s been through so much,” he said. “If anybody can pull through it will be him.”
The 50-year-old Camacho had been talking about a comeback after a three-year break from fighting. He last fight came in 2010, following a conviction in 2007 for the burglary of a computer store in Mississippi. Camacho had originally been sentenced to seven years in prison, but it was reduced to a one-year sentence.
Hector Camacho was shot in the city where he was born and raised, ESPN noted. Police have not made any arrests yet.
