Honduras ( 4 women Killed in a " Drive by " shooting - Refused to pay extortion money )

TEGUCIGALPA – A drive-by shooting at a bar in the northern city of San Pedro Sula left four women dead, Honduran police said Monday.

Three of the women were pronounced dead at the scene, while the fourth died later at a hospital, a brief official statement said.

A fifth woman wounded in the attack remains hospitalized, authorities said, but they offered no information on her condition.

The shooting occurred around 12:30 a.m. Monday in the El Benque neighborhood of San Pedro Sula, Honduras’ second city.

The women may have been killed for refusing to pay extortion money to a gang, according to unofficial accounts. Protection rackets are a major source of income for youth gangs in Central America.

Honduras suffered 85.5 homicides for every 100,000 residents in 2012, compared with a global median rate of 8.8 murders per 100,000, the Violence Observatory at the National Autonomous University said in a study released in February.