Venezuela Tackles Crime Strategy after Star's Murder
A single bullet killed former Miss Venezuela Monica Spear in the assault that also claimed her partner's life, her manager said Wednesday after a murder that exposed the country's crime epidemic.
President Nicolas Maduro called a meeting of mayors and governors Wednesday to draw an emergency anti-crime plan after Spear, 29, and British-born Thomas Henry Berry, 39, were murdered in front of their five-year-old daughter, who was wounded.
The high-profile murder put a spotlight on Venezuela's soaring crime, which has kept many Venezuelans from venturing out at night and prompted others to buy armored cars or boost security in their homes.
Spear, a soap opera star who lived and worked in the United States, had spent the New Year with Berry, who ran a travel company in Venezuela, and their daughter in the northwestern countryside.
The pair were shot dead on Monday when they locked themselves inside their broken-down car as five armed men approached them in an apparent robbery attempt, authorities said.
Five suspects have been detained.
"She was hit by a single shot in the right arm that went through her body" while Berry had three bullet wounds, Spear's manager, Katty Pulido, told CNN Espanol.
Their daughter, Maya, was wounded in the right leg and taken to a private hospital in Caracas, where she was under the care of her grandparents, Pulido said.
Venezuela has one of the world's highest murder rates, with 79 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2013, according to the non-profit Venezuelan Observatory of Violence.
The interior ministry, however, has a lower murder rate of 39 homicides per 100,000.
Film and television figures called for a demonstration against violence following Spear's murder.
Source: Agence France Presse
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