The family of the employee of a soft drink factory who was shot to death on Monday during a police procedure in the La Matanza district of Buenos Aires assured that it was a “easy trigger case”, while the autopsy determined that the victim died as a result of a shot in the back that affected one of his lungs, judicial sources reported.
While, tonight the eleven officers arrested for the crime of Esteban Bellido (39) testified when questioned by prosecutor Gastón Duplaain charge of the case, and requested that a reconstruction of the event be carried out.
The request for justice
In turn, neighbors of Bellido demonstrated on route 3, near the town of Virrey del Pino, in said district in the southwest of the suburbs, demanding justice.
“It is one more case of an easy trigger. We don’t really know whose hands we are in because the same police that have to take care of us are the ones that kill you from behind”a sister-in-law of Bellido, named Karina, told C5N.
“Esteban did not carry weapons. He is a laborer, a worker, a man who was doing a double shift all these months that he was on trial (in the factory) to be able to offer his family what he dreamed of so much, the house, fix the car “, indicated the woman, who recalled that her brother-in-law had a newborn baby and felt “very happy”.
In turn, Karina assured that the victim “had nothing to do with the sale of drugs” and that “it is false” that “the police killed him while searching”.
For its part, Adolfo, brother of the victim and who led the march, said he still does not understand what happened.
“He went to leave the car to the mechanic and the Police killed him. I still haven’t fallen. The Police are here to take care of us, not to kill us, why are they shooting?” said the man.
The investigation
Meanwhile, this Tuesday night the result of the preliminary autopsy report was known, which found that Bellido received two bullet wounds, one of which was fatal and entered through the back, in the posterior hemithorax, on the right side, which tore the lung on that side, and with an exit hole in the anterior hemithorax, so it could not be retrieved for a comparison.
On the other hand, andThe other impact was received in one of the wrists and investigators are now awaiting the results of the electronic sweep to determine which police officers fired the shots.
In that sense, The eleven officers arrested are already formally detained by order of the intervening Guarantee Court and were investigated as co-perpetrators of the crime of “aggravated homicide for being committed by a member of a security force”by prosecutor Duplaa, in charge of the file.
Judicial sources reported thatThe police officers testified before the prosecutor and requested that a reconstruction of the event be carried outan act in which the uniformed men who have fired will make it known.
Before the investigations, defense attorney Rubén Fernández announced that the defendants were going to testify before the prosecutor and stated that “there is no pact of silence” between them and “nothing to hide.”
“Apparently it was a procedure where a drug sale was being made. Two months ago a police officer who was killed by drug traffickers died in the same place and in a circumstance like this,” explained the lawyerwho added that the staff “normally covers that radius preventing this type of crime”, since it is “an area that is dominated by drug gangs.”
While Andrea, a resident of Virrey del Pino who was working on the roof of her house with her son and witnessed the murder of Bellido, nicknamed “El Jujeño”, told the Todo Noticias channel that the police entered through a street adjoining the neighborhood, “they left the patrol cars outside, and entered shooting supposedly for a raid,” although “they didn’t apprehend anyone and just shot.”
“It seems that they came looking for supposed drug traffickers, they entered shooting without looking at anything. That’s when they shoot ‘Juje’ in the back. They didn’t say anything to him, they didn’t say anything to stop him. They didn’t tell him anything to make him stop or throw himself on the floor,” said the witness
“We did not know why they shot if he was walking. The ‘Juje’ had no weapons, he had nothing. He was walking because he had left his car at the mechanic around the corner, they shot him in the back and he dies at the door from my house, he drowns in his own blood,” explained Andrea, who counted “between 11 and 18 shots” by the police.
The fact
The incident occurred on Monday afternoon, in a neighborhood of the town of Virrey del Pino, when personnel from the Immediate Operations Tactical Unit (UTOI) carried out an operation to disrupt a drug bunker.
According to the sources, there was an operator at the scene, whom the police apparently confused with a man who had gone to buy drugs.
In circumstances that are still being determined, Bellido was shot by the Police and died on the way to a hospital in the area.
The witnesses from the beginning assured the press and the investigators that the victim did not have any firearm and did not confront the troops, who shot him in the back.
In that framework, a group of protesters attacked a patrol car on Monday afternoon that had been stopped on Route 3.
A judicial source explained to Télam that, given this situation, it was arranged to separate the Buenos Aires force from the investigation and delegate the investigation to the Argentine National Gendarmerie (GNA).
In addition to seizing the weapons, the experts seized three police mobiles and analyzed their ABL system to reconstruct their routes.
For your part. From the Internal Affairs Audit of the Buenos Aires Ministry of Security, the removal of the eleven troops was ordered, added a source from the force.
