The arrest of a 20-year-old man responsible for the stabbing death of Mateo, an 11-year-old boy who was playing with his friends on Sunday at the Mocejón sports centre (Toledo, 5,000 inhabitants) gave a respite to the residents of the town on Monday. Investigators took a statement from the arrested man, who confessed to the events, and will now have to be brought before a court. Investigations continue to find the knife used to carry out the attack and to try to determine the motives, after any connection with jihadist attacks or youth gangs has been ruled out, according to sources close to the case.
The detainee is a boy with ties to the municipality. He lives in Madrid with his mother, but spends time at his father’s home, who was present yesterday during his son’s statement to investigators. According to the same sources, the arrested man displayed incoherent and alienated behaviour at times. The Civil Guard searched the homes of the father and grandmother in search of evidence related to the incident, such as the clothes he was wearing during the crime or the weapon he used. According to the investigations, the arrested man changed clothes at his grandmother’s house, although it has not been determined whether this was before or after the attack in the sports centre that ended the life of the minor.
“The murder weapon has not yet been found. At 11:00 the search efforts by the Civil Guard of Toledo have resumed with the support of other special units deployed from Madrid,” reported this Tuesday the Government delegate, Milagros Tolón in a press conference in which she spoke about the two crimes that occurred over the weekend in the province. In addition to the death of little Mateo, a man has been arrested in Toledo for shooting dead his partner’s daughter and seriously injuring her.
The attack on the boy in Mocejón occurred at ten o’clock on Sunday morning, when the victim was playing with two other minors at the Ángel Tardío sports facility, located on a hill on the outskirts of the town, next to an area of residential chalets. At that moment, a young man with his face covered entered the facilities, went towards the group of minors and attacked the boy. After the stabbing, he fled.
The Judicial Police Unit of the Armed Institute and the Information Group of the Toledo Command have taken over the investigation, which is being led by the Investigative Court No. 3 of Toledo. The proceedings have been declared secret.
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After the arrest, Asell Sánchez-Vicente, who acts as spokesperson for the family, thanked them for their support. “All I did was ask for respect and not criminalise anyone for their race,” he said on social media X about the rumours that initially circulated about who was responsible for the crime. The president of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, thanked the Civil Guard and the Police for their work and the people of Mocejón for their “civic and exemplary behaviour”. “Now it is the turn of the law and the judges,” he added, also on social media.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, also expressed his appreciation for the extraordinary work carried out by the Civil Guard. “All my love and affection go to the family and friends of the little boy. It is impossible to imagine so much pain and suffering.”
The association Justice for the Civil Guard (JUCIL) called for a reflection on the security model in rural areas, such as the one where Mateo died, in order to increase the number of officers and the deployment area. “Although two patrols were activated, one from Seseña, 39 kilometres away, and another from a nearby town, together with the support of the Seprona from Illescas, located almost 30 minutes away, the response time was 40 minutes,” the group criticised in a statement. “These response times are unacceptable,” said its spokesman, Javier Montero. The association estimates that 200 agents are needed to alleviate the shortage in the province of Toledo, according to the latest job catalogue.
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