Police officers arrested after consul’s daughter is killed

Published on 19/03/2012 01:03

Venezuelan authorities have detained 12 members of a police unit suspected in the fatal shooting of a diplomat’s daughter.

Karen Berendique, the 19-year-old daughter of Chilean consul Fernando Berendique, was killed on Friday when the officers fired on the vehicle being driven by her brother in Maracaibo, officials said. She was hit three times.

A newspaper quoted her father as saying the officers opened fire after his son failed to stop at a checkpoint.

“He got nervous because the armed suspects had not switched on their police lights,” Panorama newspaper quoted Mr Berendique as saying. “When he saw his sister was unconscious and wounded, he pulled over ... they told him they fired because he didn’t stop.”

Kidnapping is widespread in Venezuela, with car-jackings one method of capturing a victim.