(Reuters) – A security guard at the Honduran consulate near Atlanta was shot dead on Monday by an armed man who refused to hand over his weapon before entering the building and instead fired on the security guard, the Honduran foreign minister said.
Officials in the Atlanta suburb of Doraville said the suspect was in custody and another person was wounded.
Honduran Foreign Minister Eduardo Enrique Reina told a press conference in Tegucigalpa the suspect was a Honduran national and the private security guard of Mexican origin.
“The individual refused to hand over his weapon and unfortunately pulled out his weapon, mortally wounding the security guard with five shots,” Reina said.
The security guard managed to close the door, preventing the armed man from entering and possibly sparing more victims, the foreign minister said.
A Honduran witness waiting to enter the consulate noted the fleeing suspect’s license plate number and reported it to police, Reina said.
The suspect was undergoing questioning at the Doraville Police Department and the wounded person was being treated at the hospital, city of Doraville spokesperson Emily Heenan said.
(Reporting by Gustavo Palencia in Tegucigalpa and Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California; Editing by Sandra Maler)
