Gunmen shot and killed Colombian national team defender Andrés Escobar in a restaurant parking lot outside Medellín on July 2, 1994.
The 27-year-old had just returned from the World Cup in the United States, where Colombia was eliminated early.
The tragedy occurred days after Escobar scored an own goal against the host nation on June 22.
That mistake contributed to a 2-1 defeat that dashed Colombia's tournament hopes, despite the team entering as global favorites.
Escobar had returned to his hometown despite safety warnings from team staff and his brother, Santiago Escobar.
Santiago urged him to remain in Las Vegas, where the extended family was vacationing.
Santiago Escobar recounted the devastating impact of the own goal on his brother.
Escobar had been actively targeted for a high-profile transfer to Italian club AC Milan as a successor to Franco Baresi.
“It was really hard for us as a family,” said Santiago Escobar.
“because we were there in the stadium, and it was just so painful to see Andrés on the ground like that, holding his head.”
The defender expressed deep personal devastation immediately after the match during conversations at the team hotel.
“He wanted to have a great World Cup because he was going to be Franco Baresi’s replacement at Milan,” said Santiago.
“When he scored that own goal, he said to me: ‘Never in my life had I scored an own goal and I had to go and do it in the middle of a World Cup’.
That destroyed him. He was devastated.”
Santiago attempted to comfort the player by explaining that Milan's long-term scouting would not be derailed by a single match.
“I told him: ‘Forget about that. Milan have been watching you for a year or two now.
They don’t sign you based on one or two games’. And Andrés said to me: ‘They’re not going to sign me anymore’.”
Prior to the fatal altercation, the national squad faced extreme pressure, including televised death threats against midfielder Gabriel Gómez and head coach Francisco Maturana inside their hotel rooms.
“Before and after the game against the United States, Andrés didn’t say anything to me about those things,” said Santiago.
Santiago strongly advised his brother against an immediate return to Colombia to avoid public scrutiny and potential backlash.
“I told Andrés, ‘Don’t go back to Colombia’,” said Santiago. “Stay here with all of us and have Pamela meet you here.
And he told me, ‘No, I have to go to Colombia to face things head-on and tell Pamela that we should travel together’.
He never imagined they were going to do something like that to him.”
The family received the news of the murder via a phone call at 2 a. m.
in Las Vegas from national teammate Gabriel Gómez. “He told us: ‘They killed Andrés’,” said Santiago.
“As you can imagine, it was chaos.”
The family immediately boarded flights from Las Vegas to Medellín amid widespread misinformation regarding the crime. “Those images in Las Vegas have never left me,” said Santiago.
“It was the hardest moment of my life because of everything I lived through with Andrés and because of the way they killed him.
He just didn’t deserve to die like that.”
Witnesses at the scene reported that Escobar engaged in a verbal altercation with the Gallón Henao brothers, who were linked to drug trafficking, before their driver, Humberto Muñoz Castro, fired six shots.
Escobar died approximately 45 minutes later at a nearby hospital.
A massive public funeral was held in Medellín, attended by thousands of mourning citizens.
Muñoz Castro was subsequently convicted and sentenced to 43 years in prison for the murder, though his sentence was later reduced, resulting in his release from custody in 2005.
