4 held for murder of British tourist in Argentina

A police officer stands in front of the Faena Art Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, hours after assailants trying to rob two British tourists shot and killed one of them and wounded the other. Picture: Natacha Pisarenko/AP

A police officer stands in front of the Faena Art Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, hours after assailants trying to rob two British tourists shot and killed one of them and wounded the other. Picture: Natacha Pisarenko/AP

Published Dec 16, 2019

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Buenos Aires, Argentina - Police in Argentina have arrested four men suspected in the killing of a British tourist who was shot during a robbery attempt, authorities said Monday.

Authorities were searching for a fifth suspect in the murder of Briton Matthew Charles Gibbard in Buenos Aires on Saturday, according to Argentine officials.

Gibbard, 50, was shot as he and his stepson approached a luxury hotel in the Puerto Madero area of the Argentine capital. The stepson, a 28-year-old Briton, suffered a gunshot wound. The assailants were on a motorcycle and supported by accomplices in a car, and the tourists tried to resist the attack, according to an official account.

Authorities identified the vehicles used by the attackers from security camera footage and conducted more than a dozen searches in the Buenos Aires area, said Marcelo D'Alessandro, justice and security director in Buenos Aires.

A naval official guards the entrance of the Faena Art Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, hours after assailants trying to rob two British tourists shot and killed one of them and wounded the other on Saturday, December 14, 2019. Picture: Natacha Pisarenko/AP

Eduardo Scarzello, a senior security official, said the gang involved in Gibbard's death had operated at the city's international airport, identifying U.S., European and other tourists and following them to their destinations in order to rob them.

AP

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