Investigators are tracing the gun’s route into Colombia as Sen. Miguel Uribe Turbay remains in a critical condition.
The pistol used to shoot Colombian presidential candidate Sen. Miguel Uribe Turbay was purchased in the U.S. state of Arizona, the South American country’s top police officer said Monday.
Speaking at a press event, Gen. Carlos Fernando Triana of the Colombian National Police said, “According to the verification carried out by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, within the framework of international cooperation, the firearm was purchased on August 6, 2020, in Arizona, United States, that is, it was purchased legally.”
Monday’s media event follows Uribe’s being shot twice at close range in the head and once in the leg during a pre-campaign event in the Modelia neighborhood of Bogotá on Saturday. Uribe, 39, who is of the conservative Centro Democrático party, remains hospitalized in critical condition.
Triana further told the media that the Colombian Attorney General’s Office is investigating the shooting with the assistance of the country’s army and international cooperation to investigate how the weapon entered the country.
Luz Adriana Camargo Garzón, attorney general of Colombia, told the media event that investigators are also trying to identify whether the firearm used against Uribe has been involved in other similar attacks.
The alleged shooter, a 15-year-old boy from a poor neighborhood in Bogotá, was shot in the leg by police as he attempted to flee the scene and was captured.
The motive behind the attack remains unclear.
Condition Is ‘Extremely Serious’
The Santa Fe Foundation clinic, which is treating Uribe, issued a statement about his condition early on Monday.
“After completing the neurosurgical and left thigh procedures, he was transferred to intensive care for postoperative stabilization. His condition is extremely serious, and the prognosis is reserved,” the foundation stated on Monday.
His wife, Maria Claudia Tarazona, sent a message asking people to pray for him.
“Miguel is currently fighting for his life. Let us ask God to guide the hands of the doctors who are treating him. I ask everyone to join us in a chain of prayer for Miguel’s life. I put my faith in God,” she said in a post on X.
