Violence, tragedy and the murder of a cherished Panama player | Sid Lowe

When Amílcar Henríquez was shot dead in 2017 it was the latest incident in a nation where violence and football too often go hand in hand

On the day Amílcar Henríquez was killed he had been playing dominoes in Nuevo Colón, Panama. The assassins waited, using the house opposite his as a base where they planned to gun him down. Witnesses heard 23 shots and police found the stolen red Nissan Versa they drove, an AK47 assault rifle, a 9mm revolver and more than a hundred rounds of ammunition. Henríquez, hit a dozen times, was rushed to hospital, where he died. A second man, Delano Wilson, was also killed. Josimar Gómez was wounded. It was 15 April 2017.

Henríquez was 33, a father of three small children, and his only fear, he had said, was leaving them. He was also a professional footballer for Árabe Unido and the national team, which he represented 85 times. His penalty gave Panama the only title in their history – the 2009 Copa Naciones – and in his last interview, three weeks earlier, he expressed his hopes of reaching a first World Cup, having narrowly missed out four years before. Now they had one last chance.

Continue reading...