An expat from the United States is in the intensive care unit of the San Juan de Dios Hospital in San Jose after being gunned down in San Rafael of Escazu, one of the most affluent neighborhoods in Costa Rica.

According to a report filed by Angie Guerrero of online news daily Costa Rica Hoy, the incident occurred on Wednesday morning, right after the victim stepped out of a bakery located in a shopping center. After firing seven times and striking the victim twice in his legs and thrice in his neck with 9mm rounds from a semiautomatic handgun, the shooters escaped in an orange motorcycle.

The victim is reportedly a 42-year old businessman who has been in Costa Rica for more than five years.

Although comments by some eyewitnesses seem to suggest that the shooting was part of a robbery attempt gone wrong, other witnesses noticed that the victim was followed into the shopping center by suspicious men traveling in a vehicle that left the scene right after the shooting, which would suggest a targeted attempt to gun down the expat as he was leaving the bakery and getting into his vehicle..

Similar shootings in Escazu have taken place in the last few weeks: one near the Anonos bridge and the other very close to the CIMA Hospital. Those two shootings were fatal and fit the modus operandi of various executions that have taken place across Costa Rica this year. Law enforcement officials believe that rival drug trafficking clans at war with each other are hiring hitmen who travel by motorcycle, and thus there is one proposal to restrict motorcycle riders to just one per vehicle; ostensibly, this would somehow dissuade hired killings.