By Blake Schmidt
Tico Times Staff | bschmidt@ticotimes.net

The Secretary General of the National Unity Party (PUN) was shot three times Tuesday afternoon, once in the head, at his law firm in the southern San José suburb of Zapote in an attack authorities are saying looks like a hit.

Hernán Zamora, who was Housing Vice-Minister during the presidency of Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (1998-2002), was at work when three men who had scheduled an appointment with him entered his office and opened fire, nailing him first in the arm, then in the ear and finally in the shoulder. Zamora was hauled off by emergency responders to nearby Calderon Guardia Hospital, where authorities said he is in stable condition.

"It was really a miracle," PUN legislator José Echandi commented to The Tico Times on Zamora's survival. 

After the suspects opened fire, another partner in Zamora's firm pulled out a weapon and fired back at the three suspects, piercing one of them in the knee. The two other suspects escaped and took off in two cars. A fourth suspect had been waiting in one of these cars during the shooting. Police detained the injured suspect, whose last name is Ramírez and who has a criminal history.

“The suspects didn't come to assault or rob, the idea was to kill,” said Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) Assistant Director Francisco Segura in a press conference Wednesday morning.

He said judging by the fact that the crime appeared to be premeditated and organized, and by how quickly it occurred, it appears to have been a gun-for-hire-style crime. However, Segura said authorities are still investigating whether or not the suspects were paid and trying to find a motive.

Though authorities wouldn't confirm it, Echandi told The Tico Times that 22-year-old Ramírez told authorities he was paid to do the job. Ramírez has been arrested as many as 16 times for charges including robbery, according to Segura.

The day before the shooting, a person police believe to have been one of the suspects called to make a 4 p.m. appointment with Zamora. The suspects showed up at the office at 4:40 p.m.