10/26/2020 6:01 AM
Clarín.com
Police
Updated 10/26/2020 6:01 AM
Josefina was asleep when she felt someone knock on the door.
As he was, he left and, with what little he understood, he got into a car and went to look for his son.
"
Sergio was shot three times, he's dead
," the messenger who took her to the scene of the crime told her.
"I saw him, it was about seven in the morning and my son was there. The ambulance took 40 minutes to arrive. When they lifted his shirt I saw that he had the shot in the left rib," he described to
Clarín
from his home in Virrey del Pino, in La Matanza.
The nightmare of Josefina Romero (53) began this Sunday, around 6.30, when she discovered that the fourth of her nine children had been killed in an attempted robbery.
He saw, as he could, the videos of the security cameras of a neighbor in which the sequence was recorded: "Did you see the video? He killed me out of nowhere," he lamented.
Those who knew him repeat three things to describe Sergio:
that he was a fan of River, that he loved being a bus driver and driving, and that his family was his priority.
This Sunday, three armed men intercepted him in Cañada de Gómez y Coraceros, in the San Pedro neighborhood.
He was in a friend's Volkswagen Fox when he was caught head-on.
The young bus driver did not stop and then one of the criminals pointed a gun at him and fired.
Sergio Damián Gerez was shot.
The victim lived in a house on the same lot as his mother, about 30 blocks from the place where he was killed.
In this area of La Matanza, the neighborhoods are known for the kilometers of Route 3, which works as something similar to a spinal column.
The Gerez family lives at kilometer 35, where friends and co-workers protested this Sunday to ask for more security in the neighborhood.
The protesters lifted the court at the request of the Police, who told them that there were no personnel to guard the march and search for the killers.
Sergio was killed at kilometer 36, at the height of the San Pedro neighborhood, the same where another bus driver was murdered on October 1.
That day, when Sergio learned that Pablo Flores (37) had been murdered, he was going to a friend's, but he turned around and joined his companions in a march to ask for more security.
He was also a friend of Leandro Alcaraz (26), another bus operator on the 620 line killed in April 2018 in Virrey del Pino, whose case had a great impact.
They played ball together, shared their passion for River and killed him just a few blocks from his house.
Leandro Alcaraz was assassinated in April 2018.
"He loved being a bus driver, he loved to drive.
The bus and River were his passion
. He was a partner, he went to the field, if he had to go to Córdoba to see them he managed to collect francs and follow River wherever he went," his mom.
"He was happy with his job because it cost him a lot to get it. He fought a lot to be a bus driver, it was what he wanted the most and he achieved it. He was always very close to his family and a boy who when he could give you a hand. people exaggerate or when these things happen, but this was a really barbarian kid, very hardworking. A spectacular person, "recalled Sebastián, a neighbor of the neighborhood.
Sergio worked from a young age to help his mother.
He became the manager of a fast food house in San Justo, where he was employed for seven years, until he managed to take his first steps as a bus driver.
His three younger sisters depended on his salary, as was his mother, dedicated to caring for the youngest in the family who suffers from osteogenesis imperfecta, a genetic disorder better known as "crystal bones."
His little sister, as Sergio used to say, accumulates 140 fractures in his body.
Protest by bus drivers in La Matanza for the crime of Sergio Damián Gerez (29) in Virrey del Pino.
"He was my support.
Without his help I don't know how I'm going to do it
. This is a complicated area, we always talked about insecurity but I never imagined something like that. Since the pandemic started, my son stopped going to night shift, like I would go out a lot at 20 and go home. I always came home, "recalled Josefina.
This Saturday night Sergio went to a friend's hairdresser and stayed there until the early hours of the morning, a regular meeting place for his group of friends.
He had planned to play ball, but he did not: "I washed his bandages so he could go and play and the police station gave them back to me clean, they are as I gave them to him. That means he did not use them. He kept his friend who, so that he would not walk back, loaned him the car.
We suppose he did not want to stop or give it to the thieves because it belonged to his friend
. Sergio.
This Monday, between 8 and 11, they will watch him in front of the Virrey del Pino police station, in a garage in the area.
So far, the three responsible for the crime are at large.
Sergio Damian Gerez.
The investigation involves the prosecutor Federico Medone, from the Functional Instruction Unit (UFI) Thematic Homicides of La Matanza.
For Josefina, the only important thing is that they find those responsible for the crime: "I want my son's murderers in prison.
I don't want them dead, I want them in prison
."
EMJ
Look also
Another crime in La Matanza: a friend had lent him the car and they killed him to steal it
Video: he went the wrong way at full speed, collided head-on with a bus and died
