The Tarragona gunman: "I'm going to 'vaccinate' the heads of Securitas"

Marin Eugen Sabau climbs the stairs to the second floor, where the Securitas headquarters are located in Tarragona. It is 11:09 on December 14. If with the wig and the baseball cap he tried to pretend to be a woman, he has not succeeded. They recognize him. Eugen, who is 45 years old and wears black, takes off his wig. Chat with the office supervisor, Juan Jesús H., one of the names on his blacklist. The right trouser pocket is palpated. He takes out a pistol and attaches a homemade extension cord to it that falls to the ground. He makes his way to the offices. He opens a door and unloads several shots at the manager, José Manuel M. When Juan Jesús appears again and struggles with him to stop him, he shoots him in the leg. He opens an aluminum window without difficulty, jumps out, and finds the head of service, Luisa R.He unlocks several more shots. Afterwards, he gathers his things and leaves. As shown in the security images that EL PAÍS has accessed, everything happens in five minutes. But Eugen, a security guard at the company who has been on leave for six months, had been cooking revenge for a long time.

After noon, while the Mossos d'Esquadra are desperately searching for Eugen - who has fled at the wheel of his gray Citroën Xsara - some officers chat with witnesses to the shooting in the office. Carmen, an administrator, says that despite the wig, she quickly realized that it was Eugen; that he has heard "screams, shots and blows"; who has hidden under the table before calling 112. He is chatting with the

when he receives an email. It's from Eugen. He has sent it on the run. But, by the length and by the content, it is evident that he has written it long before. There he explains the reasons for a firearm attack - the three employees were seriously injured, one of them critical - which he interprets as an act of "justice."

"I'm going to be on the news with Securitas," announces Eugen, a single man, who lives alone in the small town of Alcover and is a regular at the Tarragona shooting club. “I have no other choice, I will do justice with my hands. Lessons learned with blood are not soon forgotten. Securitas will remember me for a few years ”. He says that he lived through "hell" in the company, that the bosses made "life impossible" for him, that he was a victim of labor exploitation and discrimination due to racism. Six months earlier, he had already warned in other emails that they were all going to be "in the news." But this time it is more explicit. Declared anti-vaccine, he writes: “I am going to vaccinate the heads of Securitas with three doses of Glock-Pfizer 9 millimeters. I don't want to kill them, I'll screw them up (...) I'm not crazy, I've planned it to perfection ”.

From his words it is clear that he lives, and lives badly, with pain. An intervention in a clothing store in Tarragona caused a tendon to break. He has not recovered. "When I sit down, I have the feeling that they are sticking me with needles," he complains in the mail, where he also blames the rehabilitation doctors and the justice, which has not agreed with him in the lawsuits with the company. There he cites his five Securitas “targets” with names and surnames: he just left three of them badly injured at the company's headquarters.

Eugen's escape continues. The Mossos have unsuccessfully approached his house in Alcover, where they found a note stuck to the door ("I'll be back on the 15th") and the television turned on at full volume. They hastily scan the mail for clues as to its whereabouts and intentions. They sense that the capture will not be easy: “If the police corner me and I have hostages, things will end badly for them. They won't catch me alive. I'll shoot myself in the head. I'm not afraid of jail or death. I have no family and I have nothing to lose. " Soon they will have the opportunity to see how far he is willing to go.

Three judicial police officers leave the Reus courts.

They hear on the station that the subject has just passed near there and decide to join the search.

They find the Citroën stopped at a roundabout not far from there.

When he sees them, the watchman shoots them and hits one of them in the arm.

A colleague has to make a tourniquet so that he does not bleed until he is transferred by helicopter to the hospital.

The aggressor gets into the car and drives to an abandoned farmhouse in Riudoms, a few kilometers away.

But a neighbor has seen him and alerts the police.

Soon he is, as he had anticipated in the mail, surrounded.

Negotiate or shoot

There are two options on the table: that of the negotiators and that of the Special Intervention Groups (GHG), who have already taken positions around the farmhouse and are watching you. Eugen waits vigilantly. Go in and out of a shed. It takes shelter behind a stone building. He is wearing a bulletproof vest, a homemade shield, and at least one long rifle with a telescopic sight. As it is open field, the negotiators cannot get close because they would be exposed. And they discard the megaphone so as not to compromise the position of the shooters. So they try to call him on the phone. But it does not respond. The agreed exit is discarded and one of the GHGs, protected in a position elevated 150 meters, fires a series of deterrent shots. When the troops advance on foot towards Eugen, he shoots without thinking,but falls due to the response of the agents and remains in critical condition. He is still admitted to the hospital, with a serious prognosis and in a situation of provisional prison. In the farmhouse and in the car, the police found three more pistols, a magazine, a silencer and a "reddish brown wig."

Juan Jesús, the man who had tried to stop him in the office, is the worker who has come off the best of the three in the shooting and can testify.

He says that he has known Eugen for eight years, that he always "had complaints" and that one day he told him that he would rent an apartment in front of the previous head of the company to "keep an eye on him."

He tells the Mossos that he tried to calm him down.

"No, Eugen, that is discussed."

But Eugen was already tired of talking.

"Take off, Juan, take off," he said.