Gringo Pokemon player shot in Guayaquil after refusing to give up his cell phone

Ecuadorian police said Tuesday that robbers shot and seriously wounded a U.S. man as he was playing Pokemon Go in a Guayaquil park.

Pokemon: A game worth dying for?

The victim, Mitchell Cleve Williams, had come to the South American country recently to marry an Ecuadorian woman, police said. He was playing the game at a park Sunday night when two youths approached him and demanded his cellphone. When he resisted, they shot him.

Police say that Williams argued with the thieves that he couldn’t play Pokemon without his phone.

The 35-year-old was reported in serious condition at a hospital in Guayaquil but is expected to recover.

Police said they couldn’t give the man’s hometown and the U.S. Embassy declined to comment.

Williams is one of at least a dozen people robbed in Ecuador since Pokemon Go was launched. National police say players become distracted by the game and are easy targets for thieves.