Lawyer and lecturer Kenneth Darlington, 77, is a dual citizen of the United States and Panama.
At the scene, one of the demonstrators who was shot died.
At a nearby hospital, the second was declared dead.
After a startling event in which a shooter was seen on tape approaching environmental protestors blocking a Panamanian highway and fatally shooting two of them, an elderly American has been taken into custody.
Unsettling video footage shows a guy wearing spectacles and with gray hair walking calmly up to the Pan-American Highway barricade. He waves his finger at the protesters and gets into a heated disagreement with them before pulling out a pistol and starting to shoot.
🚨RAW FOOTAGE: Old Man Shoots 2 Climate Protesters Blocking The Street ⚠️
Kenneth Darlington, 77, a lawyer and professor who holds dual citizenship in the US and Panama, has been arrested after shooting two environmental protesters blocking a Panamanian highway.
He had a very… pic.twitter.com/vO2SdlIlSJ
— Matt Wallace (@MattWallace888) November 9, 2023
More video shows people congregating around the victims’ corpses in the Chame neighborhood west of Panama City. Later, the shooter is seen being led to a police car while wearing handcuffs.
Who is Kenneth Darlington?
Subsequently, the suspect was recognized by the authorities as Kenneth Darlington, a 77-year-old professor and lawyer with dual citizenship in the US and Panama. One of the demonstrators who was shot was pronounced dead at the spot, while the other one passed away from his wounds at a nearby hospital.
The shooting took place in the midst of demonstrations in the third week against a major mining deal that gives First Quantum Minerals, a Canadian company, the right to run the biggest copper mine pit in the area for at least 20 years. In addition to causing significant financial losses—daily company losses have been projected to reach $80 million—these bottlenecks have forced the statewide closure of schools for more than a week.
President of Panama Laurentino Cortizo sent his sympathies to the families of the demonstrators who lost their lives and denounced the violence, saying it had no place in the country’s loving culture.
This terrible event happened after it was previously reported that a demonstrator was ran over to death by a foreign person who was trying to get over a barricade.
The Pan-American Highway is the longest road in the world, stretching from Alaska to Argentina and stopping briefly at the Darién Gap at around 19,000 miles.
