Santiago. The death of a 12-year-old boy in an incident with police from the so-called Rapid Action who seized horns in the middle of the preparations for the carnival, has dismayed this city and last night they set fire to tires in demand for justice.
The minor Donaly Martínez, 12 years old, died on Sunday afternoon in an emergency at a private health center in Santiago after being shot by a police officer who was trying to disperse a group during the incident.
While the Directorate General of the National Police reported that all the police agents and various civilians involved in the incident are under arrest, as part of the investigative process that has begun.
It adds that Major General Eduardo Alberto Then, General Director of the National Police, guaranteed that the person or persons responsible must answer to justice for the act.
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Relatives of the deceased child expressed their dismay at the actions of the police officers that ended the life of their relative, whom they defined as a friendly child with good grades in studies.
Donaly Martínez was sitting in a chair in front of his father Antony Martínez’s hairdressing salon in the middle of the carnival in the vicinity of Las Carreras avenue at the corner of Mella street when the action policemen showed up to seize his horns.
This morning the neighbors lit candles to repudiate the police action, pointing out that those who are there to protect the population are supposed to be acting irresponsibly and murdering children.
The minor’s relatives said that an incident occurred and one of the agents, later identified as Corporal Alejandro Castro de la Cruz, fired a shot that hit Donaly Martínez. The police officers arrested the boy’s father, but hours later they released him.
The child was transferred by relatives to the Corominas clinic, where he died as a result of the firearm wound received.
In addition to the death of the minor, the relatives question the fact that the Police were seizing horns on Avenida Las Carreras, where the Santiago carnival was held every Sunday in February from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. :00 at night.
The incident occurred in the area established to parade around the Monument to the Heroes of the Restoration.
An aunt of the boy, Rosa Peña, said that they were sitting enjoying the carnival and that they have videos of the way the police acted and that the boy’s father is an honest and hard-working man who has had a hairdresser for generations.
While Elías Vásquez, from the Las Carreras Neighborhood Council, expressed his indignation at the way the Police act, specifying that since the beginning of the carnival the Police have been seizing horns, despite having permits to operate.
He denounced that they have already requested the transfer of the police agent because his excessive actions had already put people in the community at risk.
