A British man shot dead alongside two friends while travelling in Mexico was ‘tragically in the wrong place at the wrong time’, an inquest heard.
Ben Marshall Corser, 36, from St Just in Cornwall, was killed while sitting in the back of a car outside a supermarket in Colima on May 24, 2022.
Cornwall Coroner’s Court heard Mr Corser was taken to the hospital unconscious but pronounced dead on arrival there after a fatal shot to his chest.
Emma Hillson, assistant coroner for Cornwall, concluded that Mr Corser had been unlawfully killed.
During an inquest in Truro on Wednesday, Mrs Hillson said: ‘Ben had been travelling in Mexico since January 2022. He had been very happy and enjoying a sociable time.
He had lived in different parts of Mexico, becoming part of the community. He was living with an American-Mexican family, with two other young men, Claudio and Alfredo, in Colima. They were skateboarders, and Ben joined them in skateboarding.’
The court heard Ben and Claudio returned to Colimo on May 24, and Alfredo picked them up in his car before they stopped at a supermarket.
‘While the three were in the car, outside the supermarket, all three of them, including Ben, who was sitting in the back seat, were shot dead,’ Mrs Hillson said.
Mrs Hillson said police reports included one witness statement, from a woman who described hearing gunshots and dropping down to the floor before seeing a white van with the driver’s door open.
Police obtained evidence from video cameras around the scene, which showed a grey vehicle with no identifying features.
The coroner added: ‘Three years have now passed since this death. I am satisfied it is unlikely that further information will be forthcoming.’
She reached a finding of unlawful act manslaughter, recording that Mr Corser died from a wound produced by a penetrating gun projectile to the thorax.
Concluding the hearing, she thanked Mr Corser’s family – father Andrew Corser, mother Lorraine Downes and brother Tom Corser – and friends for their attendance and for bringing a picture of him to court.
A statement read to the hearing by Andrew Corser described how his son was healthy and had been enjoying a ‘very happy and sociable time’ while travelling in Mexico in 2022.
He said his son and the two friends he had been living with had gone to the supermarket to get some food for Claudio’s mother when they were killed.
Mr Corser told the court: ‘We have had no explanation or reason given, no suggestion of robbery, kidnapping or anything else. Police have not provided us with any information apart from the cause of death.
‘Apparently, there has been a dramatic upsurge of violence in Colima. It is most likely this was a question of Ben, Claudio and Alfredo being tragically in the wrong place at the wrong time.’
A police report read to the inquest said a homicide investigation had been launched following the deaths, with evidence gathered at the scene.
It referred to the witness statement of a local woman who heard gunshots and threw herself to the ground before seeing a van with the driver’s door open but could not give any details on those responsible.
Investigations are continuing in Mexico, the court heard.
Earlier this month, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office provided a statement to the coroner’s court that ‘it was unlikely further information would be forthcoming due to the time passed since the death.’
In a tribute issued after Mr Corser’s death, his family said: ‘He held first class degrees in both fine art and mathematics, he was an artist, a poet, a computer user, maker, coder and programmer, a skateboarder, a sea swimmer, wild camper, a festival goer, an actor, a yoga lover, a photographer, a music maker, a dancer.’
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