SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Former champion boxer Hector "Macho" Camacho was seriously wounded Tuesday in a shooting outside the Puerto Rican capital, and doctors and his spokesman said he was expected to survive.
At least one gunman opened fire on the 50-year-old Camacho and another man as they sat in a car in the city of Bayamon. The other man, whose relationship to the former boxer wasn't immediately known, was killed, according to a statement from police.
Camacho was rushed to Centro Medico, the trauma center in San Juan, where he was in critical but stable condition, Dr. Ernesto Torres, the hospital director, told reporters.
The bullet apparently struck him in the jaw but exited his head and lodged in his right shoulder and fractured two vertebrae, Torres said. The doctor said the boxer, who was trailed by drug and alcohol problems during a career that included some high-profile bouts, was at risk of paralysis from the shooting.
Camacho representative Steve Tannenbaum said he was told by friends at the hospital that the boxer would make it. "This guy is a cat with nine lives. He's been through so much," he said. "If anybody can pull through it will be him."
