BPM issues updated statement following Blue Parrot shooting
Early in the morning last Monday, January 16, the festivities at Blue Parrot nightclub’s Elrow closing party were violently disrupted by a shooting which killed five people. The bedlam marked a tragic end to The BPM Festival’s ten-year tenure at Playa del Carmen, wherein the event is hereafter banned.
For the first time since its initial statement on the day of the shooting, The BPM Festival has broken its silence. In the new statement, BPM briefly eulogizes the attack’s five victims:
“We are still reeling from the loss of the five lives, three of our festival guests — Daniel Pessina (Italy), Rafael Antonio Peñalosa Vega (México), and Alejandra Margarita Villanueva Ibarra (USA) – and two well-loved members of our BPM family, Kirk Wilson from Toronto, Canada and Geovanni Francisco Ruiz Murillo from Veracruz, Mexico. Kirk leaves behind a wife and two young children.* Geovanni was the father of two children. We are in touch with both families and are doing everything we can to ease this terrible loss.”
In the announcement, BPM links to a GoFundMe account created to facilitate a memorial for Canadian victim Kirk Wilson, a bouncer who was killed while on-duty in the shooting, and is survived by a wife and two children. Wilson’s fundraising campaign was set up by his loved ones. The statement further notes that only one of the surviving victims injured in the shooting is still undergoing hospital treatment.
Though the shooting has been extensively covered, much information regarding the night’s events remains uncertain. While the festival’s statement on the day of the attack noted that the act of aggression was carried out by “a lone shooter,” numerous eyewitness accounts assert otherwise. Cartels are widely thought to be involved with the shooting – Los Zetas Cartel, in particular. However, at press time, authorities have not officially confirmed the assailants to be cartel-affiliated.
In the new statement, BPM remains an agnostic stance regarding the course of events, refraining to comment publicly “so as not to interfere with, or impede, the ongoing police investigation.”
Read the BPM Festival’s full statement below:
Editor’s note: We initially reported that Kirk Wilson’s memorial fundraiser was set up by The BPM Festival, when, in actuality, it was created by his loved ones. Donate to Kirk Wilson’s memorial here.
H/T: Mixmag
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BPM banned from Playa del Carmen; victim identities and shooting details confirmed [Breaking]
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