Wednesday May 17, 2023 | 8:15 a.m.
A La Plata prosecutor asked the popular jury to consider the four Buenos Aires policemen accused of the so-called “San Miguel del Monte Massacre” “guilty”, in which four boys -among them the missionary Aníbal Suárez (22)- died on May 20, 2019 after a police chase to the shooting and subsequent clash in that city, stating that “they showed contempt for the lives of the victims” and that “each one of them made an essential contribution” to cause the fatal outcome.
The request was formulated by the prosecutor Mariano Sibuet who, before the 12 members of the popular jury and the judge who moderates the debate, Carolina Crispiani, requested the guilt of the policemen Mariano Ibañez, Manuel Monreal, Rubén Alberto García and Leandro Ecilapé for the crimes of “aggravated homicide due to abuse of function as a member of the police forces qualified for the use of firearms, and violation of the duties of a public official.”
Before the prosecutor’s argument, the former captain García asked to testify before the jury and said that when he found out 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, while the former officer Ecilapé pointed out at all times that the persecution was “justified”, that he “never” drew his service weapon and classified what happened as an “accident”.
During his 40-minute presentation, Sibuet described the early morning of May 20, 2019 as a “horror scene”, when the Fiat 147 car in which Danilo Sansone (13), Gonzalo Domínguez (14), Aníbal Suárez ( 22), Camila López (13) and Rocío Quagliariello, then 13 years old, collided with the trailer of a truck stopped at the Route 3 collector during a police pursuit of shots, which they classified as “arbitrary and incomprehensible” and which caused the death of the first four.
“Each of the defendants made an essential contribution. If one hadn’t driven, he wouldn’t have been in a shooting position. They acted jointly having the fate of the event in their hands. It was a group of police officials, who abused their ability to act and committed a crime for the whole of society,” said the representative of the Public Ministry.
Sibuet’s presentation began after 3:30 p.m. in Room A of the La Plata courts, where he established that the cause of the impact of the Fiat 147 that Suárez was driving against the trailer was “the large number of shots that the car in which the boys were traveling received ”.
“Jurors, when we first met, I told you about an appalling event. After all these days, we heard witnesses, we saw concrete evidence. We can affirm that that expectation actually occurred,” the prosecutor claimed.
Next, Sibuet remarked that “without there being a reason that warrants it” the accused began to persecute the victims.
The prosecutor also affirmed that the police officers “instead of acting professionally, used their position of power and supremacy to violate and cause the killing of these boys”, while considering that “the evidence is clear and compelling”.
“These actions cannot be tolerated in a democratic society. I ask them for all of society, so that this type of event never happens again, ”Sibuet closed, addressing the jury.
During yesterday’s day, two of the four policemen asked to testify. Meanwhile, Rubén García said that when he found out 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.
It is expected that today they will give the verdict to decide if the four officers are guilty or not of the “Monte Massacre”, which occurred in May 2019.
