The Peruvian National Police announced on Sunday, March 10, that a man confessed to accepting money to kill Luis Choy, a photojournalist for El Comercio, reported the website Perú 21.
The suspect, who is Puerto Rican, confessed during an interrogation by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation that he accepted approximately $7,600 to kill the reporter for another unnamed man, reported the newspaper El Comercio.
The assassin, who changed his appearance to mislead police, was captured at a shopping mall and planned to escape to Ecuador, according to the website RPP Noticias. The day of the crime, the killer received an advanced payment of just under $2,000, along with a photograph of and personal information about the victim, added the website.
Luis Choy was shot dead as he left his home on Feb. 23, a crime that provoked national debate about public security in the Andean country.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
