Alfredo Alberto Pacheco, a former El Salvador national team soccer player, was shot dead on Dec. 27.

Officials say the ex-athlete was killed at a gasoline station in the city of Santa Ana, a municipality located 47 miles west of the country's capital of San Salvador, according to BBC News.

A man approached Pacheco and fired several shots in his direction. Police say two other people were injured in the shooting attack.

The motive behind the murder remains unknown and is currently being investigated.

Pacheco, 33, was banned for life in 2013 for match-fixing. Along with 13 members of the national team, he was found guilty of taking bribes to lose a number of matches between 2010-2013.

Pacheco, who played for El Salvador 86 times, also played for a short while with New York Red Bulls.

The U.S. soccer team, along with the Salvadorean Soccer Federation, offered condolences to Pacheco's loved ones via Twitter.

As CNN reports, this was the deadliest year on record for El Salvador. On average the country sees 17 murders a day. According to police there were 6,500 murders in 2015.

InSight Crime reports that 70 percent of the murder victims in El Salvador have no actual connection to gangs.

Pacheco is the second Latin American soccer player to be killed this month.

On Dec. 10, Honduras national team soccer player Arnold Peralta was shot to death while vacationing in his home country. As Newsweek reports, Peralta was killed in the parking lot of a mall in the northern port city of La Ceiba.

Honduras, like El Salvador, is a country that is plagued with violence.