A popular jury defines this Wednesday whether four Buenos Aires police officers are guilty or not in the case known as the "Massacre of San Miguel del Monte", in which four boys died after a police chase to the shots and subsequent clash in May 2019.
The deliberation of the twelve jurors will take place from 10 in the courts of La Plata, located on 8th Street between 56 and 57, after the judge in charge of the debate, Carolina Crispiani, gives them a series of instructions to reach the final verdict.
Officers Leonardo Daniel Ecilape, Manuel Monreal and Mariano Alejandro Ibáñez, and former Buenos Aires Province Police Captain Rubén Alberto García have been undergoing a jury trial since May 8.
In that debate, they were accused of the crime of "aggravated homicide for abuse of function as a member of the police forces qualified by the use of firearms, and violation of the duties of a public official" of Danilo Sansone (13), Camila López (13), Gonzalo Domínguez (14) and Aníbal Suárez (22), and the attempt of Rocío Quagliariello (17), then 13 years old.
Nine of the twelve jurors must find the defendants guilty in order to reach a guilty verdict.
Instead, if there are eight or fewer votes in favor of guilt, police officers will be considered "not guilty."
As for the requirements for defendants to receive the maximum penalty, it can only happen if the jury's verdict is unanimous.
The allegations
During the day of this Tuesday the closing arguments of the parties took place, in which the prosecutor of the trial Mariano Sibuet asked the popular jury to consider "guilty" to Ecilapé, Monreal, Ibañez and García, noting that "they showed contempt for the lives of the victims" and that "each of them made an essential contribution" to cause the fatal outcome.
In the same vein, the plaintiff lawyers representing the families of the victims agreed that what happened on the night of May 20, 2019 was a "brutal homicide" and an "unjustified massacre."
On the contrary, the lawyers sponsoring the uniformed maintained the innocence of their defendants since they attributed the responsibility for the facts to Aníbal, driver of the vehicle in which the victims were traveling, while considering that the agents acted "in compliance with their duty" when trying to identify the deceased before the persecution.
After the allegations, the police had the opportunity to say their final words, in which they apologized to the relatives of Danilo, Camila, Aníbal and Gonzalo, gave them their "most heartfelt condolences", although they maintained that they are not murderers.
During yesterday morning, police officers Garcia and Ecicapé had requested to expand their investigative statements, where the first of them said that upon learning the ages of the victims he should have shot himself "in the head," since he is "a lover of human rights" and not a murderer.
The fact
The so-called "Monte Massacre" occurred in the early hours of May 20, 2019, when members of the local police station chased along the collector of Route 3 a Fiat 147 in which four teenagers were traveling, three of 13 years and one of 14, along with a young man of 22.
The five boys were listening to music when the officers began to chase them for no reason and, according to the records of the security cameras of the municipality, to shoot them, since an effective was observed in the place of the companion of the patrol, with half a body outside and in a shooting attitude, while one of the teenagers was wounded by a bullet in one of his legs.
As a result, the car in which the young people were traveling collided with the trailer of a truck that was stopped on the road and four of the five occupants died on the spot.
With information from Télam
