New Zealand tourist killed in robbery at Southern California mall

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A 68-year-old tourist from New Zealand was struck and killed by a car during a botched robbery at an upscale shopping mall in a popular Southern California beach town south of Los Angeles, police said.

Violence broke out at the Fashion Island shopping center in Newport Beach on Tuesday afternoon when two men, one with a gun, attempted to rob a woman and her husband inside a Barnes and Noble store, Newport Beach police Sergeant Steven Oberon said at a news conference.

The woman was dragged into the street by one of the suspects and killed by a third man in a white sedan, Oberon said, adding that the three men then fled in the sedan.

The woman was identified by police on Wednesday as 68-year-old Patricia McKay, who was visiting from New Zealand.

Newport Beach police officers pursued the three suspects in the white sedan onto a highway and eventually arrested the men.

According to police, one of the suspects fired his weapon three times during the robbery without hitting anyone.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon described the murder in a Radio interview ThursdayLuxon knew McKay’s husband, former bank chairman Doug McKay, very well, he said.

“He’s a great man and it’s a great family. … I think the family will be deeply shocked and all our thoughts and prayers are with them,” Luxon told Newstalk ZB.

A spokesman for New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not name Patricia McKay but said in an emailed statement that consular officials were providing assistance to the family of a citizen killed in Newport Beach.

—-

Associated Press reporter Charlotte Graham-McLay in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed to this report.