Two people have been arrested in connection with a fatal shooting in a downtown station of the Mexico City Metro, President López Obrador said Thursday.

A man was shot and killed Wednesday night as he descended the stairs of the Bellas Artes station, the Mexico City Security Ministry (SSC) said.

The SSC said that two men had been following the victim before he entered the subway station. The victim, estimated by authorities to be around 45 years of age, was reportedly shot in the chest, leg and arm.

López Obrador told reporters at his Thursday morning press conference that the motive of the attack was robbery.

“The culprits were detained yesterday, and the motive is now known. It was robbery, 15,000 pesos [US $870],” he said.

López Obrador said that the case was spoken about at his early morning security meeting, and described the incident as “regrettable.”

National Guard personnel were deployed to provide security in Mexico City Metro stations in January after a series of unusual events sparked alarm among authorities. The vast majority of the more than 6,000 guardsmen and guardswomen deployed have since been withdrawn.

The SSC reported a second homicide in Mexico City’s historic center on Wednesday night. Two men were arrested in connection with a shooting that left one man dead and another wounded, the ministry said. That crime occurred on the street in the vicinity of the Pino Suárez Metro station.

There were 365 homicides in Mexico City in the first five months of 2023, according to federal government data. Among Mexico’s 32 federal entities, the capital was the 15th most violent in the five-month period, a ranking based on its total number of murders.

With reports from El Universal, El Financiero and Infobae