From: "Andy Smith", [EMAIL PROTECTED]
OLYMPIC MARKSMAN FROM COLOMBIA KILLS TWO WOULD-BE KIDNAPPERS.
Published: 28 April 2000 Author: Jairo Anchique
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Confronted by two attackers blocking the road and
pointing guns, Olympic sharpshooter Bernado Tobar whipped out his target
pistol and killed both men. Tobar, 49, was returning home from the target
range Thursday night with his wife and two children when two men in a taxi
blocked the road, he told police.
After the men pointed their guns at Tobar's wife and daughter, 12, and
fired at his son, 22, Tobar grabbed his .22-caliber target pistol and shot
both men, police said. They said the weapons of the slain men had been
fired. "We don't know if it was an abduction or if they were going to
steal the car," Tobar told a radio station. "We had to defend ourselves
and unfortunately it fell to me."
Tobar, who was freed Friday by authorities pending an investigation, has
been a consistent top-10 finisher in Olympic rapid-fire pistol shooting
since 1984 and is training for this summer's games in Sydney, Australia.
He finished third in last year's Pan American Games in
Winnipeg, Canada. Tobar said he would leave Colombia when his legal
situation was resolved. Tens of thousands of Colombians have fled the
increasingly lawless country the past two years.
The road shooting in Jamundi, a volatile municipality where leftist rebels
and right-wing paramilitary fighters roam, was the latest attempt to
intimidate a national sport hero.
So far this year, two Colombian world-class cyclists, Oliverio Rincon and
Luis Herrera, were
kidnapped and later released. Rincon was held for a month. Last weekend,
leftist rebels
kidnapped former national soccer team member Andres Estrada, releasing him
48 hours later after a
national cry of outrage. National sports committee officials told The
Associated Press that
worsening violence was threatening an international in-line skating
competition and could force
the cancellation of the Copa America soccer championships slated for
Colombia next year.
"Slowly, they're going to take us out of everything," said Andres Botero.
"We're going to be the pariahs of the Americas."
--
I'm just wondering at the brain power the two would-be kidnappers must
have possessed when they decided to try and kidnap an Olympic pistol
shooter!
"Duh, how can we get him?"
"I know, let's stop him on his way home from the range."
Steve.
-------[Cybershooters contacts]--------
Editor: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Website & subscription info: www.cybershooters.org
