Anger and pain.
These sentiments cross the family and friends of Norberto Martín Salzmann, a 51-year-old merchant who was killed while trying to defend himself from an assault in Mendoza.
The man had bought dollars because he was going on vacation to Brazil this weekend with his family.
He was having lunch at his house, which is behind his business premises in the Vialidad II neighborhood, on Miter and Mathus Hoyos streets, in the municipality of Guaymallén, Gran Mendoza.
The assault occurred this Thursday, just after 3:00 p.m., when the lubricant center was still open.
At the counter were his 20-year-old daughter and an employee.
Norberto heard screams and found himself face to face with the criminals, who entered the house.
There was a struggle, one of the assailants hit him on the head and another shot him in the chest.
The merchant died before being assisted by the ambulance.
When the police arrived, he was already dead.
Shock in Mendoza over the crime of a 51-year-old merchant, identified as Norberto Martín Salzmann.
The three criminals, who had entered with their faces covered and gloves, escaped in a gray van.
An accomplice was waiting for them at the wheel.
An hour later, other policemen who were collaborating in the search for the assailants found a gray Chevrolet S-10 truck, which
had a kidnapping request for having been stolen on the same Thursday of the crime.
The truck had been burned in a field on Calle Capilla de Nieve, just two kilometers from the scene of the murder.
Investigators believe that it may be the vehicle in which the murderers moved.
A dream trip
The testimonies of relatives and neighbors of the merchant gave dimension to the tragedy.
Salzmann had bought about 2 thousand dollars, the night before, to go on vacation to Brazil.
Her cousin Graciela told radio Nihuil that it was a planned trip with her parents and her sister, all of them as a family.
"The parents were already on their way to Brazil. They had reached the border. Norberto joined this weekend
," said the woman.
Tortugas de Cuyo, from senior rugby, the team where Salzmann played.
And he revealed that an hour before the crime, the merchant had made a video call with his sister, who was also traveling to Brazil.
They were all going to meet there, Norberto was traveling with his family from Mendoza.
The neighbors told that the Salzmanns are a very religious family.
The murdered merchant's father is a bishop of the liberal Catholic Church.
The victim also attended that church.
Everyone agrees that he was a hard-working person, and loved in the neighborhood.
"Today is Norberto's mother's birthday. Now she is coming back from the border because her son has been murdered," Graciela lamented.
The cousin confirmed that the criminals went to look for the dollars that the merchant had bought to go on vacation: "Like all of us who want to go on a trip, we can only buy 200 dollars and some, not even that; they force us to buy outside and
someone He has beaten it"
, he estimated.
Salzmann was married and had two daughters.
Part of his family was already arriving in Brazil.
The victim played rugby.
On Facebook, members of the Tortugas de Cuyo group, from senior rugby, dedicated a post to him.
"Another hard blow for the Tortuga family, today we physically say goodbye to our beloved "Caballo" Martín Salzmann, have a good trip, friend, may you rest in peace."
“These filthy scourges ruined a family.
Let justice be done and they pay for what they did”, posted another friend, Fabri Arenas.
Ariel Vitale, expressed anger: I am very hot, outraged, disgusted.
The end of a life that was worth a lot more than a few fucking dollars, a great pain the departure of a teammate."
Mendoza. Correspondent.
GL