The Public Ministry requested 7 years in prison for the police officers accused of the death of Juan Daniel Ortigoza, which occurred on Wednesday night in Ciudad del Este. The homicide occurred after the murder of the first non-commissioned officer Gustavo Bareiro upon entering a warehouse that was being robbed by criminals.
Prosecutors Cinthia Leiva, Edgar Torales and Osvaldo Zaracho requested the preventive detention of the 7 police officers accused of Ortigoza’s death.
The criminal process is for the alleged punishable acts of intentional homicide and attempted intentional homicide, considering that the police officers fired several shots at the vehicle in which the victim, her partner and the 2-year-old daughter were driving, who emerged unharmed from the attack. .
The accused are identified as Santiago Manuel Meza Campuzano (38), Víctor Hugo Caballero Caballero (29), Óscar Cazahu Bobadilla (40), Carlos Daniel Ferreira Gómez (31), Rolando Agustín Cáceres Villalba (24), Jorge Ariel Argüello Cabrera (36 ) and Celso Cuellar Congo, who are being held at the Alto Paraná Police Department.
The incident occurred at 10:45 p.m., when the police officers, without saying a word, fired several shots from a firearm at the silver Toyota Premio car, which was on the side of Route No. 2, commanded by of Juan Daniel, who received several projectile wounds and, consequently, died practically on the spot.
At the time, the victim was accompanied by his girlfriend Lorena Raquel Rivas Espínola and her daughter under 2 years old, who were miraculously saved, although they were also victims of attempted homicide, according to the prosecutor’s indictment.
Lorena Raquel gave a statement at the Prosecutor’s Office and stated that on the occasion they were driving in the vehicle, until they made the return at kilometer 12, then they parked on the side of the road, talking on the spot.
There, they were intercepted by a black vehicle, from which three unknown subjects got out, with firearms in hand, and immediately began to shoot at the vehicle’s occupants.
The woman said that in a moment of desperation she asked her boyfriend to back up with the car, which he did, until the man got out of the vehicle and fell seriously injured a few meters from the place. She said that there she noticed the presence of GEO police officers at the scene and only when she got out of the car with her daughter in her arms did the shooting stop.
Agents from Police Station No. 12 at kilometer 11 immediately intervened at the scene, who described that they were carrying out preventive control of people and vehicles at kilometer 10 when they heard the request for support on the police radio frequency, from agents of investigations.
Once at the scene, they saw GEO and Crime Investigation personnel on site, in addition to the Toyota Premio car with several bullet wounds and the victim, lying on the ground on the side of the road.
The wounded man was assisted by volunteer firefighters, who tried to revive him, but he died at the scene. Ortigoza Ávalos died of “hypovolemic shock from gunshot wounds,” according to the diagnosis of the forensic doctor, Dr. Aníbal Duarte.
After gathering the elements of suspicion, the head of the case, Cinthia Leiva, and her assistants, Edgar Torales and Osvaldo Zaracho, presented the accusation against the 7 uniformed men for intentional homicide and attempted intentional homicide. Likewise, they requested preventive detention, which Judge Teresita Cazal, of the Criminal Court of Guarantees No. 6, must resolve.
