Assassinations, whether for settling a score between drug-related groups or for other motives, are increasingly part of the daily news in Costa Rica.

This weekend saw what appears to be another such killing, this time on the popular central Pacific beach of Herradura, named for its horseshoe-shaped bay, which neighbors the tourist hotspot of Jacó.

A man sitting near the beach was shot at by men passing by on a motorcycle.

Apparently carried out by hired assassins, the growing number of targeted killings often involve motorcyclists driving by and shooting at close range at their intended victim.

Police have had little success locating those responsible for most such shootings, including one earlier this year outside a private school that rocked the country’s capital region in which a man was killed and a student injured by two men walking by in track suits.

Saturday afternoon, two men on a motorcycle on the road parallel to Herradura beach fired at least four shots at very close range at an as yet unidentified man, who was declared dead at the site of the shooting by investigative police (OIJ). Luckily no one else in the populated area appears to have been injured.

The OIJ is investigating the case.