LOS ANGELES – A 68-year-old New Zealand tourist was struck and killed by a car during a botched robbery at an upscale shopping mall in a popular Southern California beach town south of Los Angeles, police said.
Violence erupted Tuesday afternoon at Newport Beach’s Fashion Island mall when two men, one of them armed, attempted to rob a woman and her husband at a Barnes and Noble store, Newport Beach police Sgt. Steven Oberon said at a press conference.
The woman was dragged into the street by one of the suspects and killed by a third man who was driving a white sedan, Oberon said, adding that the three men fled in the sedan.
The woman was identified by police on Wednesday as Patricia McKay, 68, who was visiting from New Zealand.
Newport Beach police officers chased the three suspects in the white sedan on an interstate and eventually arrested the men.
According to police, one of the suspects fired three shots during the robbery, but no one was hit.
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon called the murder “an absolute tragedy” in a radio interview thursday. Luxon knew McKay’s husband, former bank president Doug McKay, very well, he said.
“He’s a great man and it’s a great family. … I think the family will be in great shock and all our thoughts and prayers are with them,” Luxon told Newstalk ZB.
Without identifying Patricia McKay by name, a New Zealand Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in an emailed statement that consular authorities were providing assistance to the family of a citizen killed in Newport Beach.
—-
Associated Press reporter Charlotte Graham-McLay in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed to this report.
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
