TOURIST KILLED OUTSIDE ORLANDO HOTEL Honeymooner tries to help wife in purse snatching

Posted on 09/09/2016 | About Orlando, Florida

A Turkish tourist on his honeymoon was killed early Thursday during an armed robbery in the heart of Orlando's tourist district. Osman Darcan, 52, died from multiple gunshots fired by a man who was trying to steal his wife's purse by their car outside the hotel resort where they were staying,

Darcan had just returned with his wife to the Wyndham Orlando Resort on International Drive at about 1:40 a.m., investigators said. Orange County Sheriff's Office Capt. Angelo Nieves at a news conference said Darcan was trying to help his wife in a struggle with the robber, who fled without the purse into a waiting car.
It was the first killing of a tourist in Orlando's tourism district in recent memory, Nieves said. The district around International Drive, or “I-Drive” as locals call it, is among the safest areas in Orlando.
Officers responded to Darcan's shooting with two minutes of getting a 911 call, and patrols will be increased in the district for the near future, Nieves said.
“Patrols have always been stepped up on the I-Drive corridor,” he said. “It's one of the safest areas, one of the tourism areas, and we constantly patrol.”
The couple was on their honeymoon and had driven up from Miami on Wednesday afternoon.
Nieves said the wife “was in a very fragile, traumatic state,” and was in contact with the Turkish consulate.
Orlando has been the top tourist destination in the United States for the past two years, with 66 million visitors last year, and the killing was only the latest troubling headline coming out of tourism-dependent metro area.
This past summer, a former contestant from “The Voice” television show was fatally shot after a concert, 49 patrons of a gay nightclub were massacred in the worst mass shooting in modern US history and a toddler was killed by an alligator at Walt Disney World.
Some tourists also have grown nervous about coming to Florida because of reports of the Zika virus in South Florida.
When asked what he would say to tourists concerned about coming to Orlando, Nieves said, “This is a very safe area.”