Gabriel García was 57 years old and on Tuesday at noon he was taking some photos on the banks of Quilmes, in Cervantes and Carlos Bavera, when a thief approached him.
He tried to steal her camera and his backpack, but García resisted.
For this reason, the thief
stabbed him in the left side of his chest,
near his heart: hours later, he died at the Iriarte hospital.
The thief is still at large.
Avenida Cervantes and Carlos Bavera, one more intersection on what used to be the colorful riverside of Quilmes, facing the Río de la Plata.
A police detachment
was installed on that corner that the municipality of Quilmes
, managed by Mayra Mendoza, pompously inaugurated in July 2023.
“Municipal investment plan for crime prevention,”
said the posters that adorned the photos of that inauguration, along with
ten patrol cars and agents in a row
.
Less than a hundred meters away, they killed García this Tuesday.
He had arrived on his motorcycle, around 1:00 p.m. He parked it a few meters from the detachment and traveled a few more meters with his backpack and his camera that was hanging from a strap.
He took photos of the river, the shore, and some soccer fields between Cervantes Avenue and the coastline.
A thief approached him, wanted to rob him and García resisted: he did not want to hand over his work tool,
a professional camera
.
In the case of the most basic cameras, they cost half a million pesos;
other models reach ten.
The thief did not tolerate the resistance and stabbed him in the chest, on the left side, below the heart.
Once García was subdued, the thief stole his backpack and fled.
Meanwhile, García was assisted at the detachment until an ambulance arrived at the scene and took him to the Isidoro Iriarte hospital.
At 10 p.m., García died.
The case is in the hands of prosecutor Ximena Santoro, from Prosecutor's Office 7 of Quilmes.
The thief is on the run and the neighbors say they know who it is.
García had a teenage daughter.
She was a fan of Quilmes and used to participate in
recitals and festivals in the area as a photographer
, photographing local artists and music bands.
The riverside area of Quilmes was historically a spa area.
Until a decade ago, in addition to bowling alleys, there were several gastronomic establishments that sold food to families who went to spend afternoons by the river.
However, the appearance of the area has been transformed since then.
The neighbors, in addition to the constant insecurity, also suffer from another historical problem in that area of Quilmes: flooding.
These two problems came together a few days ago, when a team from the
LN+
television channel was attacked a few blocks from where García was: in Cervantes and Iriarte, cameras and other equipment were stolen from the television cell phone.
According to the workers of that channel, the residents of the area themselves told them that the thieves were residents of the area.
A constant.
The blocks surrounding the river are called Villa Luján.
A neighbor of the place, Daiana, shared a post on Facebook moments after the photographer was stabbed this Tuesday.
In addition to videos of the moment in which García was transferred, which went viral, she wrote a request: “
This is a shame now, it is not understood how these things continue to happen.
The police are drawn.
SHARE TO SEE IF SOMETHING CAN BE DONE, BECAUSE THIS IS NO LONGER GOOD
.”
Even the most everyday things become risky in this scenario.
Daiana specifies about García's case: “We were driving back from school with a friend, where we had left her children.
My friend lives on the riverbank, on Cervantes Avenue, and from the car we saw this man lying on the ground, unbalanced, and we went over to see what was happening and try to help.
He was already unbalanced.”
Consulted by
Clarín
, Daiana comments on the insecurity situation in the area: “It's an everyday thing: you find out that car windows are broken, that people who come to the river are robbed.
Insecurity is constant, and the fact that it does not come to light because there are not serious cases or deaths every day is something else.
They recently changed the street chief, but the police are present, nothing more.
And they know very well where the thieves are.”
A comment from another person to that post by Daiana: “
Whenever you pass by, they are on their cell phone, distracted in their world.
Disaster
".
Refers to police officers.
In the comment we see boredom, but also a problem:
with a difference of three blocks, there are two police detachments
: the Ribera Detachment, from the 1st Police Station of Quilmes, in Cervantes and Iriarte, where the
LN+
cell phone was attacked ;
and that of Cervantes and Bavera, meters away from where García was assaulted and where he went for help after being stabbed.
Clarín
consulted the Buenos Aires Ministry of Security about the assault and murder of García as well as the security situation on the Quilmeño riverbank, an area where the Buenos Aires Police has jurisdiction with two detachments stationed, but it preferred not to respond.
Quilmes, with 636,032 residents according to the last census, is the third most populated district in the Buenos Aires suburbs and the fifth in the province, and it is also one of the most affected by incidents of insecurity.
In addition to the
LN+
cell phone ,
another Telefé cell phone was attacked just days after the first case
, but in the La Florida neighborhood.
The neighbors, on the other hand, suffer constant acts of insecurity.
Clarín
published on Tuesday the case of a retiree murdered inside her home on Monday.
The same day, a few blocks away, in the Bernal neighborhood, a Naval Prefecture agent was shot in an attempted robbery.
Last Thursday, a young man from Bernal was shot in the head after another attempted robbery, but he did not suffer serious injuries.
A week before this last event, a police officer from a tactical unit shot down two thieves when they tried to steal his motorcycle, in the La Florida neighborhood.
These are only cases that have come to light in recent weeks, although insecurity, robberies and shootings are, unfortunately, commonplace in the municipality of Quilmes.
Clarín Master's Degree / University of San Andrés
MG