Peruvian reporter investigating gangs killed by masked men

A Peruvian magazine reporter was killed by two armed men who burst into his father's grocery store south of the capital Lima and shot him in the chest Nov. 9.

Fernando Raymondi, 22, was studing journalism and also worked as a reporter for the national magazine Caretas [Masks] when he was shot in his hometown of San Vicente de Cañeta during what may have been a botched robbery, news outlets including Peru 21 reported. He died en route to the hospital. Raymondi's father said that the two men did not take anything, even though he had shown them where he kept the store's money.

Raymondi had been investigating murders commited by local gangs that had allegedly extorted construction companies in and around San Vicente de Cañeta, according to  Caretas. "I can't go out on a limb and say that this was the reason for the killing, but nothing can be ruled out," Américo Zambrano, the magazine's editor told the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Although Zambrano said that Raymondi hadn’t received any threats for his work, the Lima-based press freedom group Instituto Prensa y Sociedad [Institute for Press and Society] reported, without citing sources, that one of the gunmen recognized Raymondi in the middle of the robbery and decided to shoot him. However, the head of the Peruvian police, General Jorge Flores Goicoechea, rejected the theory that the crime was related to Raymondi's work and said the journalist had been killed amid the chaos and confusion of the attempted robbery, according to Peruvian news site RPP Noticias.