Triple homicide in El Espinal: gunmen on motorcycles kill three men inside house in Tolima
Three men were shot dead in a house in the Balkanes neighbourhood, El Espinal, on Tuesday 15 September. Intelligence and Judicial Police are investigating the case.
Gunmen on motorcycles break into house in Balkanes neighbourhood and kill three men
Three men were shot dead inside a house in the Balkanes neighbourhood in El Espinal (Tolima) on the night of Tuesday 15 September, according to infobae.com. The attack occurred around 8:00 p.m., when several armed men arrived on motorcycles in the sector and fired indiscriminately at the victims who were inside the property.
The three men died at the scene due to the severity of their wounds. The authorities have not disclosed the identities of the victims or confirmed whether there was any relationship between them.
The commander of the Tolima Police, Colonel Ferney Martín Romero, confirmed the death of the three people and announced the formation of a specialised team to advance in clarifying the case. The investigation was placed in the hands of intelligence units and the Judicial Police, in coordination with the Office of the General Prosecutor.
The proceedings include gathering information in the area, reviewing nearby security cameras and analysing the items found during the inspection of the property. The investigators are also collecting material evidence to reconstruct the path taken by the attackers after the shots were fired.
Residents of the neighbourhood alerted the authorities after hearing several gunshots. The initial account indicates that those responsible entered or approached the house before opening fire repeatedly, and that they quickly escaped the sector after the attack. The investigators must establish how many people participated and what route was used to leave the neighbourhood.
The authorities focused their initial actions on determining whether the victims were the direct target of the assailants, or whether the attack resulted from a dispute related to previous incidents in the municipality. This hypothesis has not yet been confirmed and forms part of the different lines of inquiry being pursued in the investigation.
Security council and context of violence in the municipality
The attack in Balkanes comes at a time of escalating homicides both in El Espinal and in the department. The municipality recorded more than 40 homicides during 2026, which led local authorities to evaluate new security measures. A security council was scheduled for the morning of Wednesday 16 September to review the public order situation and define actions against violence in the so-called 'Land of the Tambora'.
At the departmental level, the situation is equally concerning. During the first half of 2026, 220 murders were recorded in Tolima, compared to 133 cases in the same period of 2025, an increase of 65%, according to official figures replicated by Caracol Radio. Homicide has thus become the crime of greatest impact in the department, with incidents in both urban and rural areas.
The incident in El Espinal is not the first of this magnitude in Tolima during 2026. On 23 January, three members of a family were killed inside a house in Lérida. In March, three other people died in an attack on a vehicle in a rural area of Ataco. The massacre in the Balkanes neighbourhood places El Espinal once again at the centre of security concerns, following reports by its residents of other violent incidents in recent months.
Source: Google News CO — Crime