Police in Mexico have identified one of the suspects sought in the shooting death of a Canadian man during a botched home invasion, CTV British Columbia reported Wednesday night.
Police have yet to make any arrests in the death of Robin Wood, a 67-year-old man from Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, who was killed Tuesday at a friend's home in Melaque, a coastal town south of Puerto Vallarta.
But earlier Wednesday, investigators vowed to locate the two suspects they believe ambushed Wood and his friend early Tuesday morning. Wood was shot in the chest during a struggle.
Hugo Flores of the Cihuatlan municipal police, said four emergency vehicles were sent to the scene but police failed to locate the suspects. According to Flores, police are devoting as many resources as possible to finding them.
A local police dispatcher from Melaque told CTV British Columbia's Jim Beatty that the first hospital Wood was taken to was closed, and so emergency services workers carried on to a second hospital, where Wood died.
Flores also said that an autopsy has already been conducted and the results have been given to state authorities, who will lead the investigation.
The assailants made off with three stereo speakers and a backpack.
Meanwhile, back in Canada, residents of Salt Spring Island are struggling to come to terms with Wood's death.
"He's probably helped every person on this island that's been here for 20 or 30 years," Wood's former business partner, Blaine Johnson, told CTV News. "It's going to be tough for someone like that to be lost."
Friend Barry Edwards described Wood as "a sweet, sweet man" who will be dearly missed.
"He was as flaky as a good pie crust but just adorable all the same. Very bright person. I don't think anybody disliked him," Wolfgang Temmel, a long-time friend and former employer, told The Canadian Press.
Another friend told CTV that Wood "never had a confrontational bone in his body."
Local news outlet The Gulf Islands Driftwood exchanged emails with Arvid Chalmers, who reportedly owned the vacation home where the incident took place.
In an email, Chalmers told the newspaper that he wasn't harmed during the reported invasion but is "heartbroken" over Wood's death.
Wood's granddaughter, Heron Pedrick, told CTV that her grandfather was repeatedly robbed and victimized when he visited Mexico.
She said Wood was robbed of his Kindle last year, and also had the battery repeatedly stolen out of his car. On a recent trip to visit him, both Pedrick and Wood had their laptops stolen right out of his apartment.
Violence taints Mexico's image
The fatal shooting has become one of several violent incidences marring Mexico's image as a tourist destination.
Last June, a 62-year-old man from Penticton, B.C. was stabbed to death in Mexico and reportedly robbed of about $13,000.
Last January, 69-year-old Mike Di Lorenzo, also from Penticton, was hit by a stray bullet from a shootout while walking in Mazatlan.
And in January 2010, a Canadian couple was shot and wounded during a robbery attempt in Ixtapa, a city north of Acapulco.
Still, reports of a violent robbery in the seemingly idyllic town of Melaque are startling, freelance journalist David Agren told CTV News Channel.
"It generally has not been an area touched by much violence," he said. "There's areas around it that have been problematic but that area itself has been pretty good."
An elected trustee with the Salt Spring Island trust told The Canadian Press that Melaque was a popular vacation destination for people in the tight-knit B.C. community.
Agren also noted that it's usually easy to spot a B.C. licence plate on cars parked around the coastal town.
"In that specific area it's not a spot where those people would necessarily be worried about those things," he said.
Ian Trites, a spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, said the department is prepared to offer Wood's family consular assistance as officials continue to investigate the death.
"Consular officials in Ottawa and at the Canadian Consulate in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, are working closely with local authorities," he said in an email to CTVNews.ca.
With files from The Canadian Press
