SAN JUAN — An FBI manhunt is underway for four men after a 17-year-old hostage was killed after being kidnapped with two other people when leaving a paella restaurant where they worked in Puerto Rico on Saturday morning.
The FBI released video surveillance images of the five suspects on Twitter today and asked anyone who can identify them or their vehicle to call 787-987-6500.
Three people were kidnapped as they were leaving El Hipopótamo restaurant in Rio Piedras about 11:45 a.m. Saturday, according to El Vocero.
Two or three gunmen in a 2020 Jeep Cherokee blocked the 83-year-old owner’s 2003 Mitsubishi Outlander and took the owner, his 22-year-old male relative and the 17-year-old restaurant employee hostage.
The kidnappers called a family member of the restaurant owner at 6:00 a.m. today and demanded a ransom of $80,000, El Vocero reported, but didn’t say if the money was delivered to the kidnappers.
A team of divers began searching the San José lagoon, in front of the Las Margaritas residential complex, in Santurce early this morning in an effort to recover the weapons used to murder the restaurant employee.
The main suspect was identified as “Jomar,” but currently remains at large, according to authorities. El Vocero said that Jomar had been free on $1.8 million bail after being arrested on illegal guns and drugs charges in March 2020.
An El Hipopótamo employee who came upon the kidnapping in progress exchanged gunfire with the kidnappers, El Vocero reported.
Meanwhile, the FBI this evening released surveillance video of the five suspects walking behind the restaurant, PR Informa quickly dubbed them “the most WANTED men in Puerto Rico.”
