Veronica Zapana S. / La Paz
Due to the poor attention of the Police and Firefighters, the girl who was thrown from a second floor by her father could not be saved, said experts on child defense issues. The Fire Unit explained that the correct help was not requested.
“It has caused a lot of surprise that despite the presence of Police and Fire personnel there is no contingency action plan,” criticized the former director of the Ombudsman for Children and Adolescents of the La Paz municipality Jaqueline Llanos. She assured that if there had been a timely plan, “the girl would have been saved.”
At 1:00 on Tuesday, Fernando Barra invaded the house of his ex-partner Mónica. The property is on Santos Machicado street, in the San Pedro area. At the scene, the man attacked the mother of his daughter with a knife. He then picked up her little girl, sat on the window ledge and for almost two hours threatened to throw the little girl.
He fulfilled his warning. She stabbed her daughter five times and then threw her from the second floor. Seconds later he too launched. Today the girl is in intensive care.
Llanos said that for this type of incident and others, a “negotiator” is needed, a trained professional who is in charge of persuading the person to lower the aggressor’s stress. He indicated that in other countries there are these specialists, but in Bolivia “the Police do not have them.”
“This negotiator has the ability to change the focus of what the subject is thinking at that moment, like jumping into the void. Through his conversation, he takes him to other moments of his life in order to distract him while other people around him are working to avoid the fatal outcome, “he said.
In this case there was none of that. However, the director of the Felcv, Jhonny Vega, said that the policeman who managed to enter the victim’s apartment “tried to persuade (the aggressor) not to hurt the girl and not commit this crime, but the aggressor stabbed five times to the girl, caused two wounds at shoulder height, one in the neck and two in the abdominal area. He threw the girl from the second floor and then he used the same knife and inflicted two wounds on his abdominal region and also threw himself”.
The officer said that while the aggressor spent almost two hours in the crack of the window, he asked the police for the presence of his ex-partner and at that moment the pleas of the girl were noticeable. “She asked him not to hurt her, she asked for help. It was cold and she was not warm,” he added.
According to the neighbors, members of the Fire Department arrived at the scene “who did nothing to save the girl’s life,” said one of the neighbors. She assured that all the people who were in the place also called the Fire Unit.
The commander of the Antofagasta La Paz Firefighters Unit, Hans Barbolin, said that in this case “there was no adequate information” to collaborate in the rescue. “We sent the personnel that they required at that moment, and an ambulance was requested.”
“The police and the neighbors requested an ambulance because there was an injured person,” explained Barbolin. He indicated that this is why an ambulance was sent.
But when the ambulance arrived at the scene, six minutes after the call, he realized that the Bersa team was needed, because there had been a suicide attempt. “It is the team specialized in dealing with this type of case,” he said.
He said that the Bersa team left the unit immediately, but when it arrived it was too late because the father had already thrown the girl out and jumped from the second floor. He explained that this team acts under protocols and is made up of five members. Functions are designated along the way and the vehicle already has all the implements they might need: flashlight, helmet, descenders, harness with corresponding equipment and mats. He explained that in that case -perhaps- the neighbors could have helped by pulling out a bedspread to wait for the person if the fall occurs.
In the networks, the indignation of the population grew against the uniformed men. The Commander General of the Police, Jhonny Aguilera, assured that with this case the Police are “forced” to generate routes to deal with this type of incident. “It is a lesson learned and the Police take it for themselves.” He explained that “undoubtedly” the fall of the little girl would have been cushioned, “but who thinks that a man who manages life could cause this damage.”
The Public Ministry denounced the aggressor for attempted femicide and infanticide. The virtual precautionary hearing was held yesterday and the aggressor participated from the Hospital de Clínicas, where he is hospitalized. A judge preventively sent him to the Chonchocoro prison. In addition, the girl’s paternal grandmother and the driver who took Barra to the ex-partner’s home were apprehended for complicity.
