UK tourist shot dead in Texas bar
Posted: Sat Nov 07, 2009 4:31 pm
A British tourist has been shot dead in a bar in the United States.
Thomas Reeve, 28, was killed when a man entered the bar in Amarillo, Texas, and opened fire, before robbing the venue and customers, says a local report.
A 48-year-old man was shot in the hand and a woman sexually assaulted, says the report. A 25-year-old man has been arrested by police, it adds.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office says its consulate is providing assistance to the family of Mr Reeve.
Mr Reeve had been driving through America with two friends.
'Easygoing'
Another friend described Mr Reeve as "lovely and easygoing".
Texas newspaper The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal said on its website that police were called to the Spotted Pony Lounge at about 2245 local time on Thursday (0445 GMT on Friday).
It said a police manhunt ended with Ray Carlos Cisneros being taken into custody at about 1730 (2330 GMT) on Friday.
Mr Reeve died at Northwest Texas Hospital, Amarillo, it reports, before being taken to Lubbock for a post-mortem examination.
Adam Cox, a reporter at KGNC Radio Amarillo, told the BBC there was "a lot of shock" in the town at what had happened.
"It's a pretty popular bar, right in the centre of Amarillo, the Spotted Pony Bar. Not many people expect this to happen where people will wander in and shoot up a bar like that," he said.
Mr Cox said: "It really is a heartbreaking story, you hate to hear that. When we saw it was a UK national who had just got into Amarillo that day it made our hearts sink."
"We don't have any motive yet. We do know that the man had apparently been at the bar earlier in the day, so we don't know if there was anything that could have happened earlier."