A 37-year-old truck driver was shot to death by a police officer who tried to take him to the police station for a "contravention" during a 20-kilometer chase along a route in San Juan.
The agent was arrested for the homicide, who fired at least 16 shots at the vehicle, in a case that is already being investigated as
trigger-happy
.
"It is a serious incident," acknowledged the provincial police chief.
The episode occurred on Friday night, around 11 p.m., on provincial route 510, about 20 kilometers south of the town of San Agustín del Valle Fértil, where the victim, identified as
Federico Gastón Orihuela
, was attacked by gunfire. .
The persecution began when personnel from the 12th police station tried to take the man who was driving a Mercedes Benz model 1518, patent RMT840, to the station due to an alleged "contravention."
"There was the beginning of a contravention, there was an order from the police authority to
stop and detain
, which is what generated the escape and the chase," explained the coordinating prosecutor Iván Grassi in a press conference that he gave in the Courts with the prosecutor. of Special Crimes, Francisco Pizarro, and the head of the San Juan Police, Commissioner General Eduardo Lirola.
Given this situation, three police officers aboard a patrol car began to follow the truck driver.
As the minutes passed, other mobiles were added.
According to sources, officer Ricardo Rodríguez was in the passenger seat and first fired a warning shot with a long anti-riot weapon, but the driver ignored him.
Federico Gastón Orihuela, the truck driver who was shot to death by a police officer in San Juan.
Photo Facebook
"We are talking about twenty kilometers that this chase lasted and that only one police officer fired at the truck," added the prosecutor.
In this context, Rodríguez took his service weapon, with which he fired multiple shots at the rear of the truck
until the magazine was empty
.
After that, the officer used the driver's gun and told him to pass the vehicle driven by the victim.
According to what was reported, Rodríguez fired
more shots at the side and front of the truck
, as a result of which Orihuela suffered several injuries, lost control of the truck and was thrown from the cabin.
"The body ends up thrown on the shoulder and the truck crosses the road
until it hits a vehicle
coming in the opposite direction," said the prosecutor.
That crash was with a white Volkswagen Gol in which there were four occupants on board;
none of them suffered injuries.
16 shots, a police officer under suspicion and the pain of the wife of the truck driver shot in San Juan
Grassi maintained that " sixteen impacts
have been counted in the truck
, that includes the back, the side and the front," while the
trucker's body "would have had five shots,"
although that will be confirmed with the corresponding autopsy.
The prosecution ordered the
arrest of Rodríguez
, accused of having been the only one who fired all the shots.
He had been working in the San Juan Police since 2017. The other two agents who participated in the chase were also detained.
"An event of this nature has not occurred for many years.
It is a serious event
. As Chief of Police since I took office I have committed to preserving life," said the highest authority of the local force, Eduardo Ramón Lirola, who stressed that It wasn't "trigger-happy."
Rodríguez has been working in the San Juan Police since 2017. He started at the Los Berros Section, then in Pocito, at the 23rd Police Station and recently in January he was transferred to the 12th Section.
He was taken into custody at a San Juan hospital because he suffered a broken wrist, although there were no details about how that injury occurred.
"They have a good opinion of him, he did not carry out acts of violence (previously). He only had calls for attention for acts of service," said Lirola.
Meanwhile, investigators seized an anti-riot weapon, three service pistols, the truck, a cell phone, the patrol car, 20,000 pesos and belongings of Orihuela, who had apparently been hired in the San Juan town of Caucete
to sell melons
.
Federico Gastón Orihuela, the truck driver who was shot to death by a police officer in San Juan.
Photo Facebook
"The victim is from the province of La Rioja, from the town of Chepes, he had been in Valle Fértil for a few days with friends but at the time of the incident he was alone," said the prosecutor and added that "the deceased
had no convictions
, he would have some contraventions and a cause due to gender context in La Rioja".
Meanwhile, prosecutor Pizarro clarified that personnel from the "National Gendarmerie carried out a search with dogs trained to detect drugs that gave
negative results
."
Regarding police officer Rodríguez, Commissioner General Lirola said that they did "an investigation to establish if he had any signs of violence and that was not determined."
"The man is married, with children, he has not had any type of problem with the family, I do not know what this act of using the weapon against someone has done to him, there was no danger to his life or to third parties," he concluded. .
Meanwhile, the partner of the murdered man wrote on his Facebook: "Fede, my love, you left me destroyed, my baby."
With information from Télam