A group of 12 tourists from the United States, fresh off a cruise ship, killed a man who attempted to rob their bus Wednesday near the Caribbean port city of Limón.
Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) spokesman Francisco Ruiz told The Tico Times the attempted robbery took place in late afternoon, when the tourists requested a stop in the Cieneguita neighborhood to take pictures of their cruise ship from a distance.
According to Ruiz, three men approached the bus, and one man, armed with a .38 caliber handgun, entered and ordered the tourists to turn over their valuables. The tourists, who’d arrived that morning to Limón on a Carnival cruise ship, attacked the assailant.
When the dust cleared, the man, identified as a 20-year old from Limón, had died, strangled to death. Local press added that one of the tourists, supposedly trained in martial arts, led the attack on the assailant. None of the tourists was physically injured, though one woman suffered a nervous breakdown.
“No charges will be pressed in this case,’’ Ruiz told The Tico Times. “It is a case of self-defense, in which the lives of many tourists may have been saved.’’
Ruiz gave his condolences to the family of the dead man, but said the loss was also tragic for the country, as it “gives a bad image to tourism in Costa Rica.’’
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