Miguel Uribe Turbay: Colombian presidential hopeful still in critical condition after shooting
Miguel Uribe Turbay, a member of the opposition right-wing Democratic Center Party, was shot in the head during a campaign event at a public park in the Fontibon neighbourhood of the Colombian capital Bogota.
"His condition is extremely serious," the Santa Fe Foundation hospital said in a statement today.
"Therefore, the prognosis remains guarded."
The update came before the head of Colombia's national police said the 9mm pistol used in the attack was legally purchased in Arizona in the US.
Authorities are investigating how it got into Colombia.
The Attorney General's Office, which is investigating the shooting, said the 39-year-old senator suffered two gunshot wounds in the attack.
The hospital had said on Sunday that Mr Uribe Turbay was in a critical condition and had procedures on his head and his left thigh. It added that he remained in intensive care as doctors sought to stabilise his condition.
Meanwhile, a 15-year-old boy was arrested at the scene with a firearm.
Police chief General Carlos Triana later said the teenage suspect was being treated for a leg injury.
Attorney General Luz Adriana Camacho said on Monday that authorities have yet to interrogate the boy as he has been receiving medical care.
However, she said that if the teenager were a gun-for-hire, he would likely have little information about the hirer's motive.
Two other people were injured in the attack, but the nature of their injuries has not been made public.
Mr Uribe Turbay's wife Maria Claudia Tarazona said on Sunday that he had survived an initial operation for his injuries but remained in intensive care.
"Miguel came out of surgery, he made it. Every hour is a critical hour. He fought his first battle, and it went well," Ms Tarazona told local media. "This will take time."
The couple are parents to a young son.
Mr Uribe Turbay, a right-wing politician from a prominent political family, announced earlier this year that he wanted to run for president and was vying to be his party's candidate in Colombia's presidential election in March 2026.
It was unclear why he was targeted in the attack. He was polling well behind other party candidates at the time of the shooting.
Mr Uribe's grandfather was president from 1978 to 1982, while his mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was kidnapped in 1990 by an armed group under the command of the late cartel leader Pablo Escobar.
She was killed during a rescue operation in 1991.
Bogota's mayor, Carlos Galan, whose own presidential candidate father was assassinated in 1989, addressed journalists
outside the hospital overnight, saying he had asked for increased protection for all candidates in Bogota and for Mr Uribe's family.
The government is offering a $730,000 (£540,000) reward for information, and President Gustavo Petro said the investigation will focus on who ordered the attack.
"For now, there is nothing more than a hypothesis," he said, adding that failures in security protocols would also be looked into.
Mr Uribe Turbay was accompanied by a team of 21 people at the time of the shooting, his office said, including councilman Andres Barrios.
His party described it as an "unacceptable act of violence", while US secretary of state Marco Rubio condemned it in the "strongest possible terms".
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Three people killed and eight wounded in Brooklyn lounge shooting, police say
Three people were killed and eight others wounded when multiple gunmen opened fire inside a crowded Brooklyn hookah lounge and restaurant early on Sunday morning, according to authorities. Police officers responded to reports of a shooting inside the Taste of the City lounge in Crown Heights just before 3.30am, New York police department (NYPD) commissioner, Jessica Tisch, said at a press briefing later on Sunday. Citing a preliminary, ongoing investigation, Tisch said it appeared the shooting stemmed from gang violence. The three people who were killed were all men and were all pronounced dead at the scene. They were ages 19, 27 and 35, police said. Attributing the information to friends, the New York Daily News identified one of those slain as 35-year-old Jamel Andre Childs. Childs was killed while trying to stop a fight that preceded the shooting, the Daily News reported. Of 11 victims, Tisch added, eight were men and three were women. Their known ages ranged from 27 to 61. The eight wounded victims – five men and three women – were taken to local hospitals with what police said were non-life threatening injuries. Tisch said there were at least four different shooters who fired dozens of rounds in the lounge, striking numerous bystanders. She also said officers had collected at least 42 shell casings inside the lounge that came from 9mm and .45-caliber guns. Officers had recovered one gun near the scene of the shooting, and they were trying to determine whether it was connected to the case, Tisch said. Investigators did not immediately name any suspects or announce arrests. Tisch made it a point to say New York City had registered 'the lowest number of shooting incidents and shooting victims seven months in the year … on record'. Nonetheless, 'it's a terrible thing that's happened', she said. 'It's a terrible shooting,' Tisch added. 'There's no other way to describe it.' 'I can easily stand here and tell you that we have driven down crime, that we have removed over 2,000 illegal guns off our streets,' New York's mayor, Eric Adams, said at a briefing. 'I can give you those numbers and those stats. But that does not comfort those who are victims of gun violence.' Taste of the City Lounge, located less than a half mile from the historic Brooklyn Museum serves American and Caribbean plates with a full bar, hookah and DJs. The business opened three years earlier and was the scene of another shooting in November 2024. That earlier case was non-fatal. The typically Jewish and West Indian area where the shooting occurred has been undergoing rapid gentrification in recent years. In 2017, a bar advertising its 'bullet-ridden' wall caused outrage, with residents accusing the owner of insensitive stereotyping that overlooked the realities and toll of gang violence. As of Sunday, there had been more than 270 mass shootings in the US this year – or 1.18 a day, according to the nonpartisan Gun Violence Archive. The online resource defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more victims are wounded or killed. The US's perennially high rates of such shootings have prompted calls from some in the country for more substantial gun control. But Congress has largely been unable or unwilling to heed those calls.
The Independent
15 hours ago
- The Independent
Shooting in a crowded New York club leaves 3 dead despite record low gun violence
A club shooting in the New York City borough of Brooklyn early Sunday morning has left three people dead and nine others wounded in a year of record-low gun violence in the city. Investigators believe up to four shooters opened fire with multiple weapons at Taste of the City Lounge in Crown Heights after a dispute just before 3:30 a.m. The violence appeared to be gang-related, New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters. 'It's a terrible shooting that occurred in the city of New York,' Tisch said at a news briefing, later calling the killings 'a tragic, senseless act of violence.' The crime is the second mass shooting within weeks in New York City during a year that has otherwise seen declining gun violence. On July 29, a man stalked through a Manhattan office tower with a rifle, wounding one person and killing four others. A New York City police officer was among those who died. Mayor Eric Adams said both recent shootings just reinforce 'why we do this work of going after guns off our streets.' 'This is the second within weeks, and we don't want this to turn into a normal course of doing business of violence in our city," he said. Those wounded Sunday were being treated at hospitals for non-life-threatening injuries, Tisch said. The ages of the victims range from 19 to 61. A 19-year-old man died at the scene and two other men -- ages 35 and 27 -- died after being transported to a hospital. Investigators found at least 42 shell casings from 9 mm and .45-caliber weapons and a firearm in a nearby street. Adams said crisis management teams had been mobilized to provide trauma services and facilitate mediation efforts with the victims' friends and families to try to stop any retaliation. He asked members of the public who might have information about the shooting to help investigators by calling NYPD's crime stoppers line, 800-577-TIPS. 'If you were inside the club, if you heard individuals talking about this shooting, if you witnessed someone fleeing the location, every piece of information will allow us to put the puzzle together," Adams said. Tisch said the violence erupted even as the city has reported the lowest number of shootings and shooting victims on record during the first seven months of 2025. 'Something like this is, of course, thank God, an anomaly and it's a terrible thing that happened this morning, but we're going to investigate and get to the bottom of what went down,' she said.
Daily Mail
21 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Alabama father kills wife and kids in suspected murder-suicide
An Alabama town has been rocked by a murder-suicide that police describe 'as tragic as it comes'. A family of four, including two children, were found dead from apparent gunshot wounds in their home on Thursday morning, according to the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office. Investigators believe Larrica Gaines Smith, 41, and her two kids, Khristian Smith, 15, and Kinsley Smith, 11, were shot dead by her husband, 44-year-old Kenneth O'Neil Smith Jr before he turned the gun on himself. Officers arrived at the scene in Daphne, located across the bay from Mobile, after they received a 'welfare concern' call from a family member. Sheriff Anthony Lowery said the children's cell phones were ringing as authorities investigated the scene. He said: 'You know that was their friends. I've been doing this for 29 years. It's only the second time I've had to work a case where the whole family has been killed. 'It looks like some type of domestic issue that escalated into this. It's as tragic as it comes.' Police identified Kenneth as the shooter using forensic and circumstantial evidence found at the scene, including a recovered handgun. Lowery added: 'We will absolutely work this like any other homicide investigation. There is no reason to believe anything happened anywhere else but inside the house The neighbors are really hurting. This is a quiet neighborhood. They are proud of where they live here.' He added: 'We may never get all of the answers because there won't be a suspect to interview or anything along those lines so we'll have to use our forensic techniques as best we can to piece it back together and we'll rely on [that] information. 'We'll talk to friends and family and coworkers and all those things to try and find out as much as we can.' Crisis response teams have been made available at Daphne High School and Daphne East Elementary School, where the children attended. Neighbor Shannon Brannon told the local news that she is in shock and described the Smiths' as 'just the nicest, sweetest family', adding: 'Their kids were so sweet. They babysat my daughter. Just good people. 'She just told me they celebrated their wedding anniversary two weeks ago and was happy about it, so I just don't understand. I don't understand how this could happen.' Larrica's former colleague Sue Lyon, owner of Exit Realty Lyon, said: 'You'd just kind of imagine it would be a certain type of family that would happen to and you'd never think something like that would happen to them because she was always so quiet and polite and everything, but I mean…it's horrible.' Larrica stopped working at the agency is 2018, but Lyon said she was a talented realtor and unforgettable. 'She was so sweet, she was very quiet,' Lyon added. 'She was the kind of person that you just thought, man she's gonna work so great in real estate.'
