Colima Mexico: Brit shot dead in back of car outside supermarket alongside two friends - inquest hears man 'in wrong place at wrong time'
A man from Cornwall was shod dead in the back of car outside of a supermarket in Colima, Mexico.
Ben Marshall Corser, 36, from St Just in Cornwall, was killed, alongside two local friends, while sitting in the back of a car outside a supermarket in Colima on May 24 2022. Cornwall Coroner’s Court heard Mr Corser was taken to hospital unconscious but pronounced dead on arrival there.
A post-mortem examination found he had received a fatal shot wound to his chest. Emma Hillson, assistant coroner for Cornwall, concluded that Mr Corser had been unlawfully killed.
During an inquest in Truro on Wednesday, Mrs Hillson said: “Ben had been travelling in Mexico since January 2022. He had been very happy and enjoying a sociable time.
“He had lived in different parts of Mexico, becoming part of the community. He was living with an American-Mexican family, with two other young men, Claudio and Alfredo, in Colima.
“On the evening of May 24, Ben and Claudio returned to the area on a bus and Alfredo picked them up in the car. They travelled along the main boulevard and stopped at a supermarket.
“While the three were in the car, outside the supermarket, all three of them, including Ben who was sat in the back seat, were shot dead.” Mrs Hillson said police reports included one witness statement, from a woman who described hearing gunshots and dropped down to the floor before seeing a white van with the driver’s door open.
Police obtained evidence from video cameras around the scene which showed a grey vehicle with no identifying features.
The coroner added: “Three years have now passed since this death. I am satisfied it is unlikely that further information will be forthcoming.”
She reached a finding of unlawful act manslaughter, recording that Mr Corser died from a wound produced by a penetrating gun projectile to the thorax. A statement read to the hearing by Andrew Corser described how his son was healthy and had been enjoying a “very happy and sociable time” while travelling in Mexico in 2022. He said his son and the two friends he had been living with had gone to the supermarket to get some food for Claudio’s mother when they were killed.