Monday, February 20, 2023 | 8:41 a.m.
On March 2 of last year, the catechist and merchant Gladis Beatriz Gómez (39) was assaulted by two motorcycles that broke into her premises, one of which shot her in the head. Despite the seriousness of the injury, before losing consciousness, the victim herself told details of the case to the first neighbors who came to the store after hearing the noise of the shot.
Gómez’s death occurred on March 13, after eleven days of agony at the Samic de Oberá Hospital.
Days before his death, the Police arrested two suspects. They are Mario Antonio A. (28) and Santiago Miguel S. (27) alias “Chueco”, both domiciled in the Caballeriza neighborhood of the aforementioned town.
Shortly after one year after the fact and the lack of merit requested by the respective defenses was rejected, the closure of the investigation and the elevation to trial would be imminent, according to a judicial spokesman confided to this morning paper.
The file is in charge of Judge Pedro Piriz, subrogative of the First Investigating Court of Oberá, who ordered the prosecution with preventive detention of both defendants as co-authors of the crime of robbery qualified for the use of a firearm in an attempted degree resulting in homicide.
Therefore, Mario Antonio A. is housed in Penal Unit VIII of Cerro Azul, while Santiago Miguel S. remains in the Oberá prison.
In the case of El Chueco, it is complicated by the fact that a few days after the assault to the detriment of Gómez, he sold his motorcycle for less than the market value, an indication that did not go unnoticed by the magistrate.
Meanwhile, at the home of his alleged accomplice, they proceeded to seize a 32-caliber projectile, presumably similar to the one used to attack the victim.
one shot
Despite the discovery of the aforementioned projectile, Mario Antonio A. argued before the court that on March 2 he was at his foster mother’s house, in the town of Leandro N. Alem, from where he returned four days later.
In his investigation before Piriz, he assured that on February 27 he traveled to the neighboring town and that he returned on March 6. Several relatives endorsed his alibi, in addition to the bus driver who transferred him on the outward journey.
In any case, it is worth mentioning that from Oberá to Alem there are only 20 kilometers, a distance that can be traveled by car in a few minutes.
Consequently, at least for this instance of the process, the intervening court considered that there are elements for ordering the preventive detention of both suspects.
On the other hand, although in the first instance it was speculated that the offender who had the weapon fired twice, later tests by the Criminal Division made it possible to determine that in reality the supposed second lead found at the scene was actually a splinter of the bullet that hit the victim’s skull.
In other words, the offender fired only once.
attack and agony
Gómez was assaulted by motorcycles in her pantry on Calle Piedrabuena, corner Colombia, in the Loma Porá de Oberá neighborhood.
According to her own account before going into shock, the perpetrators of the act were two motorcycles that did not remove their helmets, one of which shot her in the head, despite the fact that she did not resist the assault.
Although neighbors who assisted her mentioned that the woman said she was about to deliver the money and that the thief still shot her, Regional Unit II reported that Gómez mentioned that she had no money, which would have caused her to be shot.
In what there is no doubt, is that the testimony of the merchant directed the investigation towards two motorcycles. The recordings of the security cameras in the area were also analyzed.
As a result of the very serious injury, the woman remained hospitalized for eleven days in the hospital in the town of Oberá in an induced coma with high doses of sedation in intensive care and with mechanical respiratory assistance.
Within this framework, from the outset the professionals in charge recognized the impossibility of extracting the bullet due to the risk involved in the procedure, expecting the reduction of an edema that exerted pressure in the area.
Even, due to the severity of the condition, it was not even possible to perform the intervention to extract the clot.
Finally, on March 13, Gómez’s brain death was confirmed, after which she was disconnected from the artificial respiration mechanisms and ceased to exist.
Then, following a wish of the victim herself, the possibility of removing the organs was evaluated, which could not be carried out since the rigorous test yielded a positive result for Covid-19.
“Cowardly act”
The crime of the merchant and catechist led to two massive marches for justice in Oberá, an occasion in which the neighbors warned about the advance of crime. Meanwhile, the wake that took place in the Cristo Rey Parish, a community in which the victim worked as a catechist.
The Bishop of Oberá, Monsignor Damián Bitar, highlighted the benefits of Gómez, which he described as “a simple, humble young woman who fought for her daily bread.”
“Dear in this parish since I worked in catechism with youth groups and, above all, in a movement of prayer and mission that is the charismatic renewal”, he specified.
With Gómez’s parents and siblings devastated by the tragedy, Bitar was the voice that interpreted the loss of both the family and the community.
“We say goodbye to her with pain, emotion, indignation, that does not go away because it has been a death not wanted by God. That is why we do not say God has called her, but God has received her. Her death was brought forward by this cowardly and cruel act of those who committed crimes in her business and made an attempt on her life, ”she remarked.
On the occasion, the Bishop of Oberá pointed to the background of drug addiction and its disastrous consequences.
“Without a doubt, the effect that drug use is causing leads to madness, that is why there are addicts who in madness hit their mother and father or attempt against their lives. We believe that behind this criminal act there must undoubtedly be drug use, ”he opined.
family pain
Roberto Gómez (58), the victim’s father, heard the assault on his daughter live, as they were talking on the phone when she was approached by the criminals.
“It was after eight thirty at night when we spoke. She took care of me and told me that she had closed the business for a while because the dogs escaped and he had to look for them. He told me that he had already tied them up and was opening them back. In that I heard as if a plate fell. Then she told me: “Daddy, they entered to rob and they shot me. Call the Police ”, she explained.
In the face of a tremendous sequence, the parent contacted Rafaela, another daughter who lives in Oberá, to whom he told what had happened and asked her to notify the Police.
He specified that Gladis was the eldest of five children and defined her as “an exceptional daughter, always looking out for the family and wanting to help everyone.”
Regarding the circumstances of the event and based on what he spoke with his daughter, he opined that “the capable criminals passed by and saw her that she was opening the business, it was already dark and she was alone. She was caught off guard, for she was just talking to me when she passed by.”
Meanwhile, he wondered “why so much evil to shoot her, because she did not resist.”
For her part, Rafaela Gómez mentioned that months before her sister had suffered a first act of insecurity in the same Piedrabuena street business.
“It was a boy who went in to buy something and when she turned around to give him the change, he stole her cell phone and ran away,” he explained.
Rafaela was the second member of the family to find out about the assault, after receiving the call from her father.
“She was just on the phone with my dad and she told him that she was shot. There she called me to let me know that something happened in Gladis’s business, and to call the Police, ”the victim’s sister recalled.
