Santo Domingo, Mar 7 (EFE).- The deputy minister of energy and mines of the Dominican Republic, Victoriano Santos Hilario, was gunned down by unknown persons in the northern municipality of Cotui, the ruling Dominican Liberation Party, or PLD, to which he belonged, reported Saturday.

During the attack, which occurred Friday night, the official’s son was wounded, according to the PLD, which demanded that the authorities impose “the kind of punishment that the perpetrators of this horrendous act deserve.”

According to PLD data, at around 10:00 p.m. local time Friday, three unknown persons, pistols in hand, intercepted the son of Santos Hilaria and forced him to open the door of his home.

Once inside, they opened fire and killed Santos Hilario and left his son with several bullet wounds.

The chief of the National Police, Manuel Castro Castillo, ordered Saturday an “exhaustive” investigation into the slaying, to be headed by the director of Criminal Investigations of that institution, Cesar Sena Rojas.

Police said in a communique that the deputy minister’s wife, the assistant prosecutor Zoila Maria Gutierrez, told authorities that the murder was commited by three men whose faces were covered with ski masks.

She said that when their son came home from university and was opening the door to their house, the three criminals held him at gunpoint and forced their way inside.

According to Gutierrez’s statement, the men marched the deputy minister from his bedroom into a hallway where they shot him, then took off in an SUV.

“It has been officially announced that both the prosecutor’s office and local police have important clues that allow them to announce that in a few hours the criminals will be captured,” the PLD said in a communique.

Santos Hilario was a member of the central committee of the PLD and was a shortlisted candidate for mayor of Cotui. EFE