A French scientist who was shot in the head during a robbery near Mexico City's airport died on Saturday, according to AP. Christopher Augur died at a Mexico City hospital four days after his assault, the fourth such incident near the airport involving foreigners in a year, the Mexico City prosecutor's office said. Augur was a member of France's Institute of Research for Development, or IRD, and had been working with Mexico's Metropolitan Autonomous University's biotechnology department for several months, according to a statement from French Ambassador Daniel Parfait. He helped to train French and Mexican researchers, and Parfait said he had a great love for Mexico. The embassy did not confirm Augur's age. «Mr. Augur was respected and esteemed as much in scientific circles as by the numerous friends that he made during his trips, which took him often to Mexico,» Parfait said. Mexican police on Friday said they'd arrested two suspects, aged 19 and 29. A string of at least 17 airport robberies, including the four involving foreigners, could be the work of two or more crime gangs, or one organization with several cells, city prosecutor Luis Vasquez said. Victims in all the attacks appear to have been followed after changing money at the airport and then robbed outside the terminal. Thieves apparently have lookouts posted near airport money exchange counters and use radios or cell phones to alert accomplices to potential targets, Vasquez said. The other foreign victims include an English man, two Ecuadoreans and a man from Guinea. The rest were Mexican citizens. Augur was assaulted after exchanging money and leaving the airport, as he and a driver traveled along a major boulevard. Prosecutors believe seven assailants were involved in the attack, in which three vehicles surrounded Augur's car and forced it to stop, Vasquez said. The driver later identified one of the suspects as the man who broke the car's window, grabbed a bag containing money and shot Augur. Both suspects may have been involved in a similar robbery in 2008, police said.
