Colombian authorities must thoroughly investigate the killing of journalist Marcos Efraín Montalvo, determine if he was targeted for his work, and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

On September 19, in the western city of Tuluá, an unidentified man with a pistol entered a store where Montalvo was talking with a friend and fatally shot the journalist four times in the chest, according to news reports and security footage of the shooting. The gunman did not rob the store and immediately fled on a motorcycle, according to those reports.

Montalvo, 68, had reported since the 1970s for local newspapers and radio stations and for the El País newspaper in the nearby city of Cali; in recent years reported on alleged corruption and mismanagement by Tuluá officials, and had also written about organized crime, including the Cilantro Cartel, a local gang that allegedly extorted vegetable sellers in the city.