3 American tourists stabbed in Puerto Rico after being warned to stop filming a hamburger cart

Three American tourists were stabbed in Puerto Rico early Monday after they were told to stop filming in the La Perla neighborhood made famous by Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito” music video, police said.

The incident began unfolding after 4 a.m. in the popular community where one of the tourists, identified by authorities as Carlos Sanchez Brown, 39, from South Carolina, began recording video of a hamburger cart but was told by some locals to stop and leave the area.

Brown was accompanied by Wallace Florence, 37, also from South Carolina, and Jackson Tremayne, 38, from Georgia, municipal commissioner José Juan García told station WAPA-TV.

The visitors allegedly did not heed the warning and continued filming. Before long, a suspect described as a fair-skinned man with long white hair allegedly assaulted Florence with a blow to the head, reported Telemundo PR.


An aerial view of the seaside neighborhood of La Perla, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Aug. 25, 2017.
Carlos Sanchez Brown, 39, Wallace Florence, 37, and Jackson Tremayne, 38, were stabbed in Puerto Rico’s historic Old San Juan neighborhood after being warned to stop filming the famous La Perla community.
AP

The trio of tourists tried to escape by making their way to the Old San Juan neighborhood, but they soon realized that they were being followed, police said.

As the victims reached Imperial Street near the Museum of Art and History, a person armed with a knife stabbed Brown in the left forearm and plunged the blade six times into Tremayne’s body, including in the left side of the chest, upper left side of the abdomen, left arm and back.

Tremayne and Brown were transported by ambulances to an area hospital, but authorities said Florence refused medical attention. There was no immediate word on the victims’ conditions.


La Perla in Old San Juan at sunrise.
The neighborhood of La Perla was made popular after it was featured in the music video of “Despacito” in 2017.
Getty Images/iStockphoto

So far, no one has been arrested in connection to the bloody attack.

The incident happened nearly two years after Tariq Quadir Loat, a visitor from Delaware, was killed and set on fire after police said he was warned not to take pictures while buying drugs in La Perla.

La Perla became world-renowned after it was featured in the video of “Despacito,” a chart-topping hit song released in 2017 by Puerto Rican singers Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee.

The community was once a dangerous slum considered the island’s biggest distribution point for heroin, but crime has dropped since a 2011 raid by federal agents.

With Post wires