Global Courant
There are news regarding the investigation of the crime of Gabriel Izzo, the businessman shot and stabbed to death during an assault on his home in San Antonio de Padua: a fifth suspect has been identified, who escaped from the scene with a gunshot wound.
This is Víctor Ricardo Martín Fernández Galarza, 30, with a home in Ituzaingó, whose national and international arrest was ordered in the last few hours by the judge of Guarantees 2 of Morón, Ricardo Fraga.
According to the investigators, Fernández Galarza would have been injured in the shooting by Izzo, due to the blood stains found in the place.
Víctor Ricardo Martín Fernández Galarza, the fourth suspect identified for the Padua crime.
The fugitive has a record for armed robbery and a 2009 criminal case in the Buenos Aires justice system. In addition, he was imprisoned in a federal prison between 2015 and 2016.
Thus, Fernández Galarza joins the list of fugitives for the crime of Izzo, like Diego Eduardo Correa and Gustavo Julio Alberto Mac Dougall, who also have a national and international arrest warrant.
There are two detainees
This Saturday, the Buenos Aires Police made the second arrest in the case. This is “El Chapista”, Gustavo Potenza, who was captured in one of the raids carried out in a house located at the intersection of José Enrique Rodo and Gibraltar, about five blocks from the 5th Merlo Police Station, in Pontevedra.
Gustavo Potenza after being arrested this Saturday by the Buenos Aires Police. Photo: Buenos Aires Police
After his capture, Potenza denied having participated in Izzo’s crime, when he was investigated by the prosecutor in the case, Claudio Oviedo, head of Morón’s Functional Instruction Unit (UFI) 5.
“He denied participation in the act and denied having been in the car” in which the gang of assailants was moving, confirmed a judicial spokesman.
The reference is to the gray Volkswagen Gol Power vehicle used by criminals to flee after the crime; and that he was later found in front of the kiosk of one of the detainees.
Potenza was investigated as a co-perpetrator of the crime of “theft qualified by the use of a firearm, homicide criminis causes two acts, one of them attempted – by Izzo’s wife, who was injured – and possession of a war weapon”.
Likewise, his defense attorney requested that the defendant expand his investigative statement next Wednesday after he can analyze the videos that are the evidence against his defendant.
The first to fall from the gang was Walter “el Uruguayo” Rodríguez Sierra (51), who is the owner of the linked car and the “Mandale mecha” kiosk, where Potenza parked the car minutes after the crime.
Precisely, on Friday, Rodríguez Sierra expanded his investigative statement before the prosecutor and insisted on his innocence. But, after insisting, the accused decompensated and he had to be transferred to the West Ituzaingó sanatorium, where he was treated and, once stabilized, was taken again to his place of detention.
Izzo’s crime
Gabriel Izzo’s crime occurred 10 days ago, on Friday the 9th. It was around 4:20 in a house located on Calle Italia 1077, a few blocks from the center of the San Antonio de Padua station. He was 60 years old.
The owner of a sawmill lived there, together with his wife Silvana Andrea Petinari (56), daughter of the owner of a company dedicated to the manufacture of trailers, dump trucks and semi-trailers in Merlo.
Gabriel Izzo was assassinated on June 9 at his home in San Antonio de Padua.
The Police confirmed that at least two criminals forced an American-type wooden blind from the house and entered, after which they surprised the couple who were sleeping. Outside, two other thieves were waiting for them in a gray Volkswagen Gol Power.
According to the sources, Izzo woke up to noises and grabbed two weapons of his own that he kept in his room – a Bersa .40 caliber pistol and a .38 revolver – and left the room to see what was happening.
In these circumstances, he confronted the criminals, who shot him with firearms and also stabbed him. The victim also fired.
The house of the murdered businessman in San Antonio de Padua. Photo: Luciano Thieberger
Izzo was hit by at least five projectiles and died on the spot as a result of the bullet and stab wounds that the criminals inflicted on him, while his wife was stabbed and beaten.
Also in the house was the mother of the injured woman, Elsa Otruba de Petinari (83), who was unharmed since she did not leave the room.
