The three members of the Buenos Aires City Police accused of shoot their weapons and kill Lucas González (17) when he was traveling in a car with three friends with those who had left training at the Barracas Central Club in November 2021, testified on the first day of the trial for the murder and subsequent cover-up of the fact that they acted “in legitimate defense” and that they did not commit “any crime”.
Before the Oral Criminal Court (TOCA) 25, the inspector Gabriel Alejandro Issasi (41), the senior officer Fabián Andrés López (48) and the officer Juan José Nieva (37), the three Buenos Aires police officers tried for homicide along with others 11 accused of cover-up and tortureagreed to ensure that they acted “in the line of duty” and do not accept answer questionsat the same time that they declared without the presence of the rest of the defendants, that they were withdrawn from the Auditorium room of the federal courts of Retiro, where the debate takes place.
What did the defendants say?
The first to arrive at TOC was Issasi, who stated: “I just have to say that I have twenty years of service as a public official, exercising it in the field of the police. He belonged to three different forces, the Provincial Police, the Metropolitan and City Police. in all I was a decorated officer and exercised my function“.
“I want to add that in this act I acted in the line of duty, that I exercised legitimate defense and that I did not commit any crime,” added the defendant, while shouts of “murderer” and “you are going to die” were heard from the public in the room.
Then, Nievas declared, who said that he joined the police in 2014 and, in this case, he exercised his “legitimate defense” and did not commit “any crime”, which was followed by shouts of “scoundrel” among the families of the victims.
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Finally, the third accused of homicide, López, declared: “In this fact, he fulfilled my duty, I exercised legitimate defense and I did not commit any crime,” he stated, like the previous ones.
The debate continued with the call to testify of the remaining 11 accused of covering up the fact and try to pass it off as a confrontation with criminals and for subjecting to torture the three friends who were with Lucas aboard the Volkswagen Suran shot at by the police.
The first to be called was the principal of the 4D Commune, Héctor Claudio Cuevas, who refused to testifyTherefore, the Court made up of judges Ana Dieta de Herrero, Daniel Navarro and Marcelo Bartumeu Romero decided to read their statements during the investigation of the case.
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Then it will be the turn of the inspecting commissioner of the Neighborhood Communal Department 4 Daniel Alberto Santana (50); the commissioner of the Neighborhood Commune 4A, Rodolfo Alejandro Ozán (54); the commissioner of the 4D Neighborhood Police Station, Fabián Alberto Du Santos (51); Comuna 4D commissioner Ramón Jesús Chocobar (48) and commissioner Juan Horacio Romero (51) and deputy commissioner Roberto Orlando Inca (47), both from the Summaries and Brigades Division of Comuna 4.
Also the officers of the 4D Neighborhood Police Station Sebastián Jorge Baidón (28), Jonathan Alexis Martínez (34), Ángel Darío Arévalos (34) and Daniel Rubén Espinosa (33).
Once the inquest is complete, begin the round of expected witnesses: the Lucas’s father, Héctor “Peca” González, and the victim’s three friends, Joaquín Zúñiga, Julián Salas and Niven Huanca.
Those accused of aggravated manslaughter
In this trial, Issasi, López and Nieva, who were part of the Brigades and Summaries Division of Commune 4 of the City Police and are now detained, face an accusation for “aggravated homicide for having been committed with treachery, for pleasure, for racial hatred, for the premeditated collaboration of two or more people and for being committed abusing his role or position by a member of a police force“.
In addition, the three are charged with the “attempted aggravated homicide, ideological falsehood and illegal deprivation of liberty aggravated by functional abuse and without provision of the law“, in the case of Lucas’s friends.
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Meanwhile, the other 11 police officers are being tried for “fIdeological abuse, illegal deprivation of liberty aggravated by functional abuse and without provision of the law, cover-up aggravated by the condition of public officials and because the predicate offense is especially serious and imposition of torture“and, in the case of Cuevas and Inca, also for “false testimony aggravated by having been committed in a criminal case and to the detriment of the accused.”
The crime of Lucas González
Lucas’s crime occurred on the morning of November 17, 2021, when the young man and three friends left training in Barracas and got into the Volkswagen Suran of one of their fathers to return to the Buenos Aires town of Florencio Varela.
After stopping at a kiosk, the boys began to be chased by a Nissan Tiida in which three policemen were circulating of Brigade 6 of the 4D Neighborhood Police Station, who carried out field tasks at the intersection of Iriarte and Vélez Sarsfield avenues and They were not uniformed nor did they carry a beacon on the road.
For that reason, They thought they might be thieves and tried to escape, at which point the police officers fired at them and a bullet hit Lucas in the head, who died the following day at the El Cruce de Florencio Varela Hospital..
According to the investigation, after shooting at the young people, the police officers informed the police communications service that they were chasing a car with “four men who looked like minors, young people” who “they were armed“, so they crossed the Nissan Tiida to stop them.
JD/DS
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