MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Oil tanker captain and FO shot dead off Argentine coast

The “murderer was a very calm person”

A sailor with a criminal record killed the captain and first officer of a Maltese-flagged oil tanker and then turned himself into the authorities off the coast of the Argentine province of Buenos Aires.

“The captain and the first officer are dead, I killed them and I am going to surrender. So I want a coast guard to come and arrest me,” acknowledged the perpetrator in a radio communication with the Maritime Traffic Service.

The murder of Captain Alejandro Daniel García (39) and First Officer Juan Alfonso Pegasano (48) occurred around 11:30 pm Friday aboard the tanker Ayane, which had set sail from the Port of Buenos Aires with 21 crew members (all Argentine) Oct. 11 and was anchored near Punta Lara.

The perpetrator, Carlos Lima (52), a third officer on the deck of the oil tanker, is a former Buenos Aires Police lieutenant who was dismissed in 2007 for undisclosed reasons.

In 2008, Lima fired six shots at a neighbour who survived the attack. For this crime, Lima was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison by a La Plata court. He was released in 2013 after five years. He then went to work on merchant ships, a career in which he became the third officer.

The night of his first crime, Lima had begun to smash the street pavement to prevent the water from the drain of his washing machine from accumulating. When a neighbour asked him for an explanation all he received were six bullets: one in the left leg, two in the spine, one in the abdomen and two in the left arm, for which he has transferred to a local hospital where he was treated and survived.

Lima barricaded himself in his house and even shot at the police before turning himself in an hour later when he saw the deployment of the Grupo Halcón SWAT team.

For these actions, Lima earned himself the nickname “El Loco” (the mad one).

Coast Guard officers boarded the Ayane at around 1.40 am Saturday and arrested Lima, but the gun was nowhere to be found, presumably thrown into the water. A Coast Guard spokesman said, “it is not entirely clear how the events happened, since it is believed that the attacker could have suffered a psychotic breakdown.”

The crew managed to isolate themselves in a sector of the boat until the Coast Guard came aboard and took control of the situation.

It is also unclear how Lima got onboard carrying a firearm since merchant sailors are not allowed to carry weapons, but sources consulted by the TN news service explained checkups are not as thorough as with aeroplane passengers who need to go through metal detectors.

Coast Guard authorities also explained the murderer “was a very calm person, so there was no type of problem at any time.”