A cameraman outside the Zambrana Regional Center for Juvenile Offenders in Valladolid on March 4. Photogenic/Claudia Alba (Europa Press)
KD, the teenager who died last Thursday after being handcuffed and reduced by guards at the Zambrana juvenile detention center in Valladolid, suffered from heart problems and was three years older than he had declared.
This follows from the autopsy, which has revealed that the young man was 17 years old and not the 14 that he supposedly had recorded when he arrived in Spain on November 29.
KD was in this center, dependent on the Junta de Castilla y León, due to his frequent violent outbursts, according to sources from the Prosecutor's Office, the last of which the guards tried to stop when he died.
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The handcuffed death of KD, the 14-year-old boy with heart problems
The young man, of Tunisian origin, was protected by the Junta de Castilla y León after arriving in Spain on November 29.
He did it alone, by train, from Switzerland.
In that country he had undergone surgery for a gastric problem, although sources familiar with his history state that he escaped from the hospital one day before being discharged.
No one knows exactly how he came to Valladolid, but he did have an acquaintance in a juvenile center in Zamora.
The policemen who found him wandering opened a procedure that ended with the Board taking charge of the boy, who claimed to be 14 years old.
He first entered an assistance center in this city, but his violent behavior caused him to be transferred to another in the same province.
There, he persisted in his attitude and was taken to the Zambrana de Valladolid, known for his severity.
The monitors and the administration of the center soon discovered its violent nature, according to the Prosecutor's Office.
The young man did not speak Spanish, as confirmed by sources in a case, which is being investigated by a court and by the Ombudsman.
The protocol establishes that the monitors, if they are overwhelmed, can notify the guards to intervene "physically", by means of their own force, or "mechanically", with handcuffs, if they cannot placate the minor.
KD had already been involved in brawls, as revealed by the parts that open when someone gets so violent that the guards have to appear, and on Thursday he suffered another outburst.
“He had been bad all day”, detail voices familiar with what happened, until it exploded at dinner time.
The North African threw the tray with the food, became very aggressive and the conflict began.
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The preliminary investigation rules out excesses of the guards in the death of the minor interned in Valladolid
The adults notified two guards, who went shortly before 10 p.m. to those chalets where the minors reside in "socialization" treatment, separated from those who follow a stricter "reform" regime, for those who have committed crimes.
These houses do not have cameras that record the action of the guards, although the report sent on these events "does not attract attention or is strange," according to sources close to the investigation.
The judicial work must determine if someone exceeded in that common room where this retention occurred.
The operators physically restrained KD for four minutes, but as he continued to rebel, they handcuffed him for 12 minutes. The regulations state that this type of intervention must be "proportionate" and applied only in critical episodes.
The efforts of the toilets to revive him failed and Zambrana faces a death that has excited the other inmates, according to voices close to the center, because his theory that they are "in a prison" and "submitted" is corroborated.
"This boy invented pathologies and did not allow himself to be treated when he was hospitalized," explain those who agreed with him, who highlight his violent behavior.
According to sources familiar with the autopsy, it has found that the size of the boy's heart is larger than normal, something that may imply cardiac dysfunction at times of alteration such as a brawl.
This supports the thesis of the Family Council, which has defended the work of the guards, although internal voices criticize that sometimes they go too far.
About his 17 years and not the 14 he said he was, the sources acknowledge that physically KD
The life journey of the deceased, they add, fits more with the 17 than the 14 because the boy recounted that he left Tunisia at the age of 11 for Sicily (Italy), where his father lived.
From there, he said, he traveled through the Netherlands or Germany before ending up in the Swiss hospital from where he left for Spain.
The Board, through the Tunisian consulate, has contacted the mother, with whom the minor barely had a link, to find out if she wants to take the body to her country or bury it in Valladolid, always by the Muslim rite of burying her without a coffin and looking at Mecca.
It is not yet known what will become of KD's body until the investigation reveals what ended his life in a juvenile facility.
