Global Courant
Facundo Matías Torres, the police officer who had been accused of planting a weapon at the Lucas González crime scene, was arrested this Saturday around noon at his home in Llavallol, in the south of the Buenos Aires suburbs.
Torres had been pointed out last Thursday by Héctor Claudio Cuevas (50), principal of the 4D Commune, who testified before the Oral Criminal Court (TOC) 25 that he saw the officer Gabriel Alejandro Issasi (41) dressed as a civilian when he “shot the weapon” in the back of the vehicle, after another of the police officers on trial, Deputy Commissioner Roberto Orlando Inca (47), told him “go put that on.”
Cuevas said that he was at the scene of the crime when he saw Inca arrive first and give directions to the other troops present, after which an officer named “Torres” arrived on a motorcycle and together with a man dressed in civilian clothes and with “white cap”.
Based on that statement, an arrest warrant was issued against the officer, who was finally arrested this noon.
According to Cuevas, Torres went to speak with Inca, who was close to him, and listened when the deputy commissioner told him “go put that on.”
Then, the same person approached the back of the Volkswagen Suran -in which were Lucas, Julián Salas (19), Joaquín Zuñiga (19), and Niven Huanca (19)-, which was open and “dropped the weapon”.
“I panicked, I thought about my family, about my children,” recalled Cuevas, who explained that he had not declared this before out of fear.
In turn, the principal clarified that only when he saw the first detainees “on the news” did he recognize Issasi as the person in civilian clothes who threw the weapon away.
“What they did is crazy,” added Cuevas, who at the time of testifying did so without the presence of the other accused police officers on the premises.
This officer also apologized to the plaintiff lawyer, Gregorio Dalbón, who replied: “Only God forgives.”
Given Cuevas’ statement, both Dalbón and prosecutor Guillermo De la Fuente suggested that the City Police Transparency Office be requested to report on the geolocation of cash Torres’ motorcycle and his cell phone to check the data provided by the main regret
Meanwhile, the court went to an intermission room until June 6, when it is expected that, as various defenders announced today, other accused policemen will testify as a result of what Cuevas recounted.
“It was very important because what he just said (Cuevas) is that he was not a crazy person who threw away. Rather, he said he was afraid for his family because since Lucas was murdered, they could murder him,” the lawyer told the press. Dalbón upon leaving the venue this afternoon.
how was the case
The crime of the player from the lower divisions of the Barracas Central club was committed on November 17, 2021, when he was with his friends aboard a Volkswagen Suran that was intercepted by a Nissan Tiida in which three police officers from Brigade 6 were driving. from Comuna 4 of the City Police who signaled to them to stop.
Since they did not have police identification, the boys thought they might be thieves and tried to escape, at which point the 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 tried to pretend that it had been a confrontation with criminals, a maneuver to which other officers would have joined, who “planted” a weapon in the victims’ car.
The three members of the Justice Brigade are awarded co-authorship of the crime of “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 their function or charge by a member of a police force”.
In addition, they face charges for “attempted aggravated homicide, ideological falsehood and illegal deprivation of liberty aggravated by functional abuse and without provision of law”, in the case of Lucas’s friends.
Meanwhile, another 11 city police officers, also detained, are being tried for covering up Lucas’s crime and the torture to which the other boys were subjected.
They are the commissioner inspector 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 Inca, both from the Summaries and Brigades Division of Comuna 4.
Chief Cuevas and officers of the 4D Neighborhood Police Station Sebastian Jorge Baidon, 28, Jonathan Alexis Martinez, 34, Angel Darius Arevalos, 34, and Daniel Ruben Espinosa, 33, are also on trial.
DB
