A British man was shot dead as he sat in the back seat of a car outside a supermarket in Mexico, an inquest into his death has heard.
Artist and poet Ben Corser had been living in the country since January 2022, staying in various towns and becoming part of the community. At the time of his death in May 2022, he was living with an Mexican-American family near Colima.
The 37-year-old software designer from Cornwall was picking up groceries for the family when he and two other young men in the same car were gunned down.
Today the inquest held at Cornwall Coroner’s Court heard Mr Corser was taken to hospital unconscious but pronounced dead on arrival there. A post-mortem examination found he had received a fatal shot wound to his chest.
Emma Hillson, assistant coroner for Cornwall, concluded that Mr Corser had been unlawfully killed.
At the time of his death his dad Andrew Corser and mum Lorraine Downes released a statement about what took place.
It read: “Ben has been in Mexico since January 2022, where he had been having a very happy and sociable time, living in different parts of Mexico, becoming part of the community, and also moving around a bit.
“Most recently, Ben was living with a Mexican-American family near Colima city; two of the young men in the household – Claudio and Alfredo – were skateboarders and Ben joined them skating.
“On Tuesday evening, May 24, 2022, Ben and Claudio come back on the bus from Guadalajara and Alfredo picked them up in the car. They went along the main boulevard in Colima and stopped at a supermarket to get some food for Mamma.
“While they were in the car, outside the supermarket, all three young men, including Ben sitting in the back seat, were shot dead. We have had no explanation, no reasons given, no suggestion of robbery, kidnapping or anything else.
“No doubt the police will eventually conclude their investigation and tell us what they think happened – there had been a dramatic upsurge in Colima in the last few weeks, although this was not directed at all at tourists.
“It is most likely that this was a question of Ben – and Claudio and Alfredo – being tragically in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Mrs Hillson said police reports included one witness statement, from a woman who described hearing gunshots and dropped 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.
The family also released a tribute to their son. “Ben’s family are completely devastated – his heart-rending death came as such a shock to all of us, and to each of his multitude of friends around the country and beyond,” the said.
“Ben had a breadth that is rare today: 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, a wild camper, a festival goer, an actor, a yoga lover, a photographer, a music maker, a dancer.
”He was a lover of people from the youngest to the oldest, man, woman and child; of animals (especially dogs and cats); of nature, from the cultivated through to the wildest; but also of the urban environment, of graffiti and of skyscrapers; and of all art – from the earliest, the most representational, to the most abstract, the newest and the most conceptual.
”Ben was just so much fun to be with because he lived in the moment, with everybody (and every dog or cat) he met and who met him, and he was so generous, sharing his joy in life, and everything else he had, with all of us.
“He seemed to take risks – but that only revealed our own fear– he showed us how he was always within his capabilities. Ben, although born in London, lived in Cornwall from his first birthday, going to school in Sennen and Cape Cornwall in St Just, as well as St Julian’s in Portugal, then doing his A-levels at Truro College, going on to Bristol UWE, and latterly Birkbeck College, London.
”Ben was one of the founders of an eclectic group of artists called the Bristol Diving School; it is hoped that exhibitions of his work will be arranged in Bristol and Cornwall, and probably online as well.”