Motive for attack that killed the former Honduran footballer remains unknown as police arrest security guard at mall for reportedly refusing to hand over footage

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Autopsy results show that former Glasgow Rangers footballer Arnold Peralta suffered 18 gunshot wounds in what prosecutors described as a “vicious attack”.

The 26-year-old midfielder was killed on Thursday when two men on a motorcycle opened fire at a shopping mall in Honduras in his hometown of La Ceiba, on the Caribbean coast.

Investigators in Honduras are analysing security camera footage from Uniplaza shopping mall, where Peralta was ambushed as he parked his car. Another footballer who was with him at the time was unharmed.

An autopsy on Friday showed that he died of “multiple gunshot wounds to the skull, face and chest”. Investigators have so far recovered 11 9mm bullet casings from the scene.

Three murder investigation teams have been dispatched from the Honduran capital to assist the investigation, which has shocked a country all too accustomed to random acts of extreme violence.

No suspects have so far been detained, though police arrested a private security guard at the mall after he reportedly refused to hand over the security footage which may have captured the attack.



The motive for the attack is yet unknown, but police have ruled out robbery after confirming that the player’s belongings – and his Porsche SUV – were left at the scene.

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Warring street gangs, organised crime groups and drug traffickers have made Honduras one of the most dangerous countries in the world, with 58 murders per 100,000 habitants this year. Around 80% of drugs from South America pass through Honduras on the way to the US, according to the DEA.

Peralta is at least the 15th person linked to sports who has been murdered in Honduras since 2000, according to the newspaper Más. In 2003, Milton Flores – the beloved goalkeeper of Real España and the national team – was riddled with bullets from an AK-47 as he drove home from a match against Real España’s rivals Vida.

Earlier this year, the president of Real Espana, Mario Verdial, was killed while traveling with security guards in a suspected extortion-linked assault.

Peralta spent 18 months at Ibrox and helped Rangers win the 2013-14 Scottish League One title, before leaving the club halfway through last season to join Olympia – one of Honduras’s biggest clubs.

Peralta was in La Ceiba to visit family and friends following the conclusion of his club’s season. The player had recently celebrated the birth of a daughter with his partner.



In an interview with local media, his father said that he’d warned his son not to drive such an expensive car in the city where robberies and common crime are rampant.

“This is a very hard blow for me, he was my youngest child,” said Carlos Perlata.

“He’d never mentioned any problems to me ... I told him that his car was too extravagant for this city.”

Rangers will hold a minute’s silence before Saturday’s match against Greenock Morton, and the players will wear black armbands as a mark of respect for the former Blues defender.