Santiago.-A savage shootout in the Santiago commune of Quilicura has caused consternation in the country, when an armed gang got out of a car and riddled a group of teenagers between 13 and 17 years old who were celebrating a birthday party with automatic weapons, killing four of them and leaving another six injured, three in serious condition.
The tragedy occurred in a passageway in the Raúl Silva Henríquez neighborhood, when the group of young people were preparing to make a bonfire outside the house of one of the victims and “a vehicle appeared with between two and four subjects, all armed with firearms, who shot at this group of people,” according to preliminary information provided by prosecutor Daniel Contreras, of the Organized Crime and Homicide Team (ECOH).
“We don’t have the exact number of shots, but we can say that there were many, there were bursts of gunfire that these teenagers received,” Contreras said at first. Hours later it was learned that more than 40 shots had been fired at the teenagers, leaving a blue wall riddled with bullet holes that served as a tragic backdrop.
Ten girls and boys were injured – all of them Chilean nationals – and their families immediately took them to the nearest health center, where three of them, aged just 13, 16 and 17, arrived without vital signs.
Those in critical condition were then taken to San José Hospital, where a fourth victim, also aged 16, died hours later. Three other children remain in critical condition.
Everything points to a war between rival gangs and for now, the whereregardings of the attackers, whose vehicle was found completely burned hours later, is unknown.
A woman identified as Jasmine, aunt of one of the victims, told CHV gruesome details of the incident, stating that one of the attackers got out of the vehicle to give her nephew a shot to kill him. “I’m going to finish him off so he doesn’t talk,” the attacker reportedly said, whose intentions were thwarted by another relative of the boy, who also died on the spot from his injuries.
“(My nephew) was not part of the gang, he did not live here, he was not a bad guy. He greeted us with respect,” the woman lamented.
The mother of the same young man, in conversation with ADN radio, explained that “a car arrived and shot the children who were there on the corner. My son was there, in the wrong place. They were playing Free Fire with their friends at the bonfire,” she said heartbroken.
After the brutal attack, the mayor of Quilicura, Paulina Bobadilla, said that “it is a regrettable situation that of course hurts us, that today children are victims of organized gangs,” but she insisted on not stigmatizing the commune “as has happened for years” and asked the police authorities to intervene in conflict areas that are absolutely “identified.”
“We will continue working along those lines, on that path, because that is what it is regarding, not continuing to stigmatize spaces, populations or slums,” the community leader stressed, according to BioBioChile.
Presidential delegate Gonzalo Durán also expressed his regret for what happened, saying that “the circumstances, the motive, the place, or the specific conditions are not important. This is a particularly serious and particularly painful event.”
“This requires special concern and reflection regarding what has been happening for years in our country, in our society, which ultimately leads us to end up with children involved in events of this nature,” he said.
“The first objective is to ensure that we put an end to impunity and that those responsible for violent acts actually pay for the crimes they committed,” concluded Durán.
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2024-07-17 22:21:00
