Joseph Hernández Ochoa

TV Channel 51

March 1, 2010, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Hernández, 26, an entertainment journalist and host for Tegucigalpa-based Channel 51, was driving colleague Karol Cabrera home when two unidentified gunmen fired on them in a neighborhood known as El Chile, press reports said. Hernández, shot several times, died at the scene. Cabrera, a host with private station Radio Cadena Voces, was hospitalized with gunshot wounds to the left arm, news reports said.

News accounts suggested that Cabrera had been the target of the attack. Cabrera, who hosted a television show on state-owned Channel 8 during the interim government of Roberto Micheletti, said she believed supporters of ousted leader Manuel Zelaya were behind the attack, press reports said. Cabrera's daughter, Kathleen Nicole Rodríguez Cabrera, was fatally shot in December 2009 under similar circumstances, according to press reports. 

Cabrera said she had received several anonymous death threats by phone before the shooting and had been assigned a police escort, press reports said. The officer was at Cabrera's home at the time of the attack, according to news reports.

Hernández hosted the program "Encuentros" on Channel 51 and was studying journalism at the National University of Honduras.

Medium: Television

Job: Broadcast Reporter

Beats Covered: Culture

Gender: Male

Local or Foreign: Local

Freelance: Yes

Type of Death: Murder

Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group

Impunity: Yes

Taken Captive: No

Tortured: No

Threatened: No

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• Journalist murders spotlight Honduran government failures, July 27, 2010
• Journalist killed, another wounded in Honduras shooting, March 4, 2010