Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 3, 1994                   TAG: 9407030065
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MEDELLIN, COLOMBIA                                LENGTH: Medium

LOSING SOCCER PLAYER SHOT FOR HIS MISTAKE

Andres Escobar, 27, died in a parking lot 10 days after he inadvertently scored a goal for the opposition in the game that the United States won 2-1.

Police said Escobar was shot 12 times in an early-morning confrontation with three men and a woman, who surrounded him after he left a bar in Medellin, Colombia's third-largest city.

"Thanks for the own-goal," one of the gunmen said before shooting Escobar, an unidentified witness told a radio reporter. Other reports said he was shot three times.

The national police reported the arrest of two suspects Saturday afternoon and said two others were being sought, including the owner of the truck that the arrested men were using. The truck owner reported his vehicle stolen Friday night, but now he can't be found.

Colombians, already plagued by the highest murder rate of any country not at war, reeled from the news.

President Cesar Gaviria described Escobar's death as "a loss which causes Colombia to mourn and which fills us with pain."

"Soccer is only a game and there's no justification for Andres to have been killed for having committed an own-goal," said Francisco Maturana, coach of the Colombian World Cup team.

A crowd of 3,000 people thronged to the morgue where the body of the soccer star lay, RCN reported.

Medellin Mayor Luis Alfredo Ramos said other Colombian World Cup players living in Medellin would be given bodyguards and a reward would be offered for the assassins' capture. The reward was set later at $62,500.

Escobar had returned with the team Wednesday after being eliminated in the first round of the World Cup. Colombia had been considered a favorite to win the championship.

After the team was eliminated, anonymous threats against the players and their coach began arriving at TV and radio stations.

In 1989, referee Alvaro Ortega was killed in Colombia, apparently by gamblers linked to traffickers.

Escobar had left a bar on the outskirts of Medellin and gotten into his car when he was surrounded by three people, police said.

After haranguing him for his lackluster World Cup performance, they shot him, police said.

Escobar was a highly regarded player, renowned for his clean and elegant style. He is no relation to slain drug lord Pablo Escobar, whose operations were centered in Medellin.

FIFA, the international governing body for soccer, said from Dallas that it was "profoundly horrified and dismayed" by the slaying.

World Cup USA94 expressed its horror and extended sympathies to "his family and all those who loved his stylish play.

"We deplore the violence which has taken this talented young man's life," added the statement from East Rutherford, N.J., site of Giants Stadium and one of the World Cup soccer venues.

World Cup coaches also were shocked by Escobar's slaying.

"It's a dreadful thing, absolutely dreadful," said Irish coach Jack Charlton in Orlando, Fla. "Who wants to play a football match if you're going to get assassinated? Who would do a thing like that?"

Keywords:
FATALITY