KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A 16-year-old Kansas boy was fatally shot Thursday on a high school trip to Costa Rica.
Justin Johnston of McLouth High School was in Costa Rica with a group of 11 other students and two school district sponsors as part of a program with his school’s Spanish Club.
The Costa Rican newspaper La Nacion reported that a hotel guard shot Johnston in the chest about 4 a.m. as Johnston and another boy, who had left the hotel in the middle of the night, were trying to get back in. The guard in the city of La Fortuna de San Carlos mistook them for intruders, according to EF Educational Tours, which organized the trip.
No other boys were wounded in the shooting. The tour organizers said grief counselors are working with the students and their families. Officials from the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica are meeting with local officials.
McClatchy Newspapers
