Arrest in Aussie killing
SAN Francisco detectives yesterday made an arrest in the killing of Australian tourist Matthew Bate as his family began the long trek to bring his body home.
The Darwin scientist died early on Friday after a verbal stoush with a group of men turned physical outside his hotel, near the tourist area of Fisherman’s Wharf.
Police questioned several men and charged just one yesterday over the murder of the 33-year-old, saying he would face court on Monday local time.
“On Friday after the investi- gation there were two suspects that had been detained and after further investigation one suspect was placed under arrest,” Officer Gisele Talkoff told News Corp.
Officer Talkoff would not confirm reports Bate was killed by a single coward punch when he tried to walk away from a group of men who were arguing with him just after 2am on Friday local time.
“What I can say is that there were no weapons involved and at this stage there are no plans for any further arrests to be made,” said Officer Talkoff.
Mr Bate’s parents and sister from Ocean Grove in Victoria were understood to be making their way to the US to retrieve his body. They earlier released a statement about his “tragic and sudden loss”.
“He had such a warm and kind soul and was a wonderful son, brother, uncle, and friend. He will be missed by all,” they said.
Mr Bate was a Deakin University graduate who moved to Darwin last year where he had started work in June as an analytical chemist for SGS Australia.
Before that he had spent 18 months in Townsville.
He had been on holiday in the US with friends for the past week and was staying at the da Vinci Villa hotel in the Russian Hill neighbourhood. Police said Mr Bate was critically injured in the fight and died shortly afterwards in hospital. A fellow guest said she thought one of Mr Bate’s friends had been in the lobby and “extremely upset” on Friday morning. “I was going to get coffee and there was an Australian man and he was very upset,” said Alexandra Miller from Jupiter, Florida. “He was pacing up and down and seemed distraught. Then we heard about the murder and we understood what it was about.” Mr Bate’s family has asked for privacy as they deal with the tragedy.