Salt Spring Island resident Robin Wood was fulfilling his dream to travel and meet old friends when he was shot and killed Tuesday in Mexico, according to those close to him.
The 67-year-old was staying at a friend's house in Melaque, a coastal town south of Puerto Vallarta, when he was ambushed by two masked men in a home invasion. There are reports that police have identified a suspect but have yet to make an arrest.
He died before emergency crews could transport him to the nearest hospital, located 20 kilometres away.
Wood's granddaughter Heron Pedrick told CTV News that she was in disbelief over the killing.
"It's one thing to be out on the street and be robbed, it's another thing for someone to come into your home and kill you," she in a phone conversation from her home in San Francisco.
She added that her grandfather had been robbed "repeatedly" before the home invasion, and may have fought off the robbers simply because he had had enough.
Wood's longtime friend and former business partner Blaine Johnson said it was dark day in their small Gulf Island community when word of his death arrived.
"Pretty much every person on Salt Spring that's been around has run into him, or he's helped in one way, shape or form," Johnson said. "It's a very tough day."
Johnson said travelling to catch up with old friends was something Wood talked about "every day since I knew him."
"He was having the time of his life."
The deceased has been described as good-humoured and kind, with numerous friends and no enemies on the island.
Wood was staying with best friend Arvid Chalmers, who witnessed the invasion but was unharmed. Chalmers sent an email to local news outlet The Gulf Islands Driftwood saying he was "heartbroken" by the tragedy.
"We are mostly walking zombies trying to process how unfair, how absurd [it is] that this should happen to good people," he wrote.
Meanwhile, police have yet to make any arrests.
The fatal shooting has become one of several violence incidences marring Mexico's image as a tourist destination.
Last June, a 62-year-old man from Penticton, B.C. was stabbed to death in Mexico and reportedly robbed of about $13,000.
In January 2010, a Canadian couple was shot and wounded during a robbery attempt in Ixtapa, a city north of Acapulco.
Mike di Lorenzo, a Penticton resident who was shot in the leg during a visit in Mazatlan last year, says news of Wood's death has turned him off returning to Mexico.
"I'm too scared to look at what happened to the other Canadian. I'm too scared. I mean, I'm not ready for that. And I wish to go but I can't," he told CTV News.
Ian Trites, a spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, said the department is prepared to offer Wood's family consular assistance as officials continue to investigate the death.
"Consular officials in Ottawa and at the Canadian Consulate in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, are working closely with local authorities," he said in an email to CTV News.
Foreign Affairs says that five Canadians were murdered in Mexico last year, while 16 have been killed in the last five.
With files from CTV.ca
