The news about a teenager injured by a police officer in Camaguey It went viral this week on the networks and grabbed headlines in unofficial media.
According to these publications, the minor was shot by the police officer, so he had to undergo emergency surgery at the pediatric hospital in the city of Camagüey.
The incident was confirmed this Wednesday by the Ministry of the Interior (Minint), in a note in which it stated that the injury occurred “accidentally” the night of the previous day, due to a shot “escaping” from the police officer’s weapon. The latter was also injured.
“Preliminarily, it was known that accidentally, the minor and a law enforcement officer were injured when the latter fired a shot from his service weapon,” the official explanation states. reported by local media.
The statement confirms that the teenager – whose name is not revealed – received medical attention “immediately” at the Eduardo Agramonte Piña pediatric hospital in Camagüey, “with support for the family at the hospital.”
“He underwent surgery, he is conscious and his life is not in danger,” the note states, according to which the agent, whose identity is also not specified, “also received medical assistance.”
Official version vs. networks
The Minint states that the minor is 14 years old and that when the incident occurred “he was carrying a knife and resisted arrest.”
Furthermore, he assures that, as was later established, the shot teenager “has been treated by the Provincial Council for the Care of Minors of Camagüey, for systematic transgressions of the law, in acts that are classified as crimes.”
Meanwhile, the official media that released the statement charged against the “distortion” and “manipulation” of the event on social networks, which they attributed to “cybermercenaries” and “defamatory and subversive campaigns against the Cuban authorities.”
From unofficial networks and media, for their part, it is stated that the minor’s gunshot wound would have been in “the hip or femur”, while the police officer’s would have been in the hand.
In addition, they report that after the event, the police presence in the Camagüey pediatric hospital and its surroundings increased significantly, while relatives of the minor, residents of the area and Internet users demanded transparency from the authorities about what happened.
Before and after the official note, social media users have also drawn attention to the fact that for the weapon to fire, even accidentally, it had to be unlocked and presumably out of the holster, which raises questions about how this happened.
The Minint, which considers what happened as a “regrettable incident”, does not offer details in this regard and indicates that “investigations continue to fully clarify the incident.”
