San Juan, Mar 4 (IANS/EFE): Puerto Rican boxer Hector "El Flaco" Sanchez was shot multiple times and killed Sunday in San Juan in an incident in which three other men also died, the third such massacre so far this year on the Caribbean island.

Sanchez's mother, Carmen Garcia, confirmed her son's death to the daily El Nuevo Dia when she came out of the Centro Medico, the island's main hospital, where the athlete was being treated.

She said that at 11 p.m. Saturday the boxer said he was going to go out for a moment, but about 90 minutes later authorities told her that he had been seriously wounded during a shootout.

The 26-year-old Sanchez died Sunday afternoon after being shot several times in the abdomen and head.

"He was at the wrong place ... My son didn't mess with anyone. He doesn't hurt anyone," Garcia said.

The other men who died were identified by police as Luis Munoz Castro, 42; Bienvenido Rivera Garcia, 43, and Marcos Javier Tanco Rosario, 40.

Tanco Rosario evidently had a criminal record for murder, officials said.

Sanchez began his professional career in 2005 after a successful career in amateur boxing in which he won the national championship.

He is the second Puerto Rican boxer to be murdered in 2013.

In January, Kenneth Diaz was riddled with bullets by unknown killers in the town of Trujillo Alto, near the capital.

The 21-year-old Diaz was killed in a drive-by shooting along with two other men as they were speaking with a private security officer at a school and unknown gunmen opened fire on them from a vehicle.