A shocking act of gun violence has rocked the small southern Spanish town of El Ejido, located near the city of Almería, leaving two people dead and four others seriously wounded. Spain’s national law enforcement agency, the Guardia Civil, has confirmed that a 25-year-old man has been taken into custody on suspicion of carrying out the fatal attack that targeted his own parents and several other victims.
Local emergency dispatch received the first report of the shooting at 23:00 local time on Monday evening, which equates to 22:00 British Summer Time. Emergency responders quickly arrived at the scene, and all four injured victims were immediately transported to area hospitals for urgent medical care. Among those hurt are two young children, a 60-year-old man, and an additional adult, according to unofficial local media accounts. One of the injured children is the 25-year-old suspect’s own seven-month-old son, while the other injured child is an 18-month-old toddler, the reports add.
As of Tuesday, Spanish authorities have not released the formal identities of the suspect or the two slain victims, citing ongoing investigative procedures. Following the shooting, the suspect fled the scene and was briefly at large before turning himself in voluntarily at a local police precinct, according to Spanish news agency Europa Press.
Guardia Civil officials have confirmed that they have launched a full investigation into the attack, with investigators currently working to piece together a clear motive for the violence. What makes this attack particularly notable for Spain is that mass shootings remain an extremely rare occurrence in the country. Data from Project Insight, an organization that tracks gun violence across the European continent, shows that only four mass shootings were recorded in Spain between 2000 and 2023, making this incident an anomaly for the nation’s typically low rates of mass gun crime.