The first 2022 matchup between Nacional and Peñarol began to be played outside the courts. The protagonists were the brave bars of both teams, who participated in two murders in just four days: one of the fan Washington “Washi” Simon, from Nacional, and another from a 17-year-old boy wearing a Peñarol shirt.
Everything began to take shape at dawn on Three Kings Day. We must go back to January 5 and place ourselves in the White Way of October 8. The fair that day motivated Simón, also known as “Washi”, to go shopping with his partner given his parole, after the case that convicted him of the murder of Peñarol fan Hernán Fiorito, in 2016.
Similarly, the area was the meeting point of a group of Peñarol fans, accustomed to meeting in La Unión. That night, the friends gathered around a corner and walked to the Vía Blanca to set up shop next to a stall located on Gobernador Viana and 8 de Octubre. Once there, used cocaine, marijuana and drank alcohol among several, As reported this Wednesday at a press conference by the Prosecutor Carlos Negro.
Meanwhile, “Washi” and his girlfriend were shopping. It was almost 1 in the morning on January 6 and the situation had not been identified by the Police.
At that moment, one of the Peñarol fans, who had bought toys, went to his house, next to a picnic area, to store the gift from his children. The others accompanied him in search of chairs to return to the place where they were and make themselves more comfortable.
The journey was barely three blocks. But on the way back, a few meters from the stall, the partisans met the Nacional bar and one of them decided to hit him. The aggressor was in charge of the stall located at the fair, at the intersection of Gobernador Viana and 8 de Octubre. He has not yet been found by the Prosecutor’s Office.
According to Simón’s own statements, to which the Negro prosecutor alluded on Wednesday, he had to leave the place as he felt outnumbered after the attack. Minutes later, near the Sanguinetti school, he separated from his partner and met a friend, also identified with Nacional. That person “was not formalized today because he was in quarantine for covid-19, but he has an arrest warrant against him,” Negro explained.
“Simón, together with this other person, decide to return to the post area. During those blocks, the Peñarol fans who were at the picnic area (near the house of one of them) were notified. The one that was formalized today for homicide, he received a call and they started to return to the area where the Nacional fans were arriving,” the magistrate said.
And he detailed: “The four co-defendants undertake the return to Gobernador Viana. Unone of them was armed: he had a backpack with a firearm. When they reach the area near October 8 (the armed man) gives the order to fight. That’s where the fight begins between the partials of the National Soccer Club – which so far we have identified two – and those of Peñarol – which so far we have four, but could be more- “.
The Nacional bars had blades, which they used to attack three of those who participated in the fight. Consequently, one of Peñarol’s fans, wounded, decided to pull out a gun and shot Simón, who died days after the incident.
In statements to the Prosecutor, the murderer admitted having committed the murder.
The authorities are still trying to identify the vendor who was in charge of the stall at the Vía Blanca fair and started the brawl.
