Ciudad Juarez.– This Friday, during the third hearing of oral trial 175/2024 for the crime of homicide against a municipal police officer, the Public Prosecutor’s Office presented the testimony of four members of the Municipal Public Security Secretariat (SSPM).
The first to testify was the VOON officer currently assigned to the special operations group and who joined the corporation in 2012 with uninterrupted service.
The officer explained that on the day of the events, she and her colleagues aboard unit 902 responded to a call received on 911, which reported explosions in the Sierra Vista subdivision and because they were on Miguel de la Madrid Avenue, they arrived in a few minutes.
He said that when he arrived he saw a body lying down and a witness who told him that he was at Gustavo’s business, the name of the murdered officer, when the police officer arrived and asked him to accompany him outside because he saw suspicious vehicles.
When they left, they saw a red and a blue vehicle and fired shots at them. The officer fell wounded and he took his pistol and shot at the attackers.
The officer had trouble remembering important details such as signing the Homologated Police Report, as she said she did not remember who was responsible for filling it out and signing it, when it was her name that appeared on the official document, as the agent observed when the defendants’ defense showed her a copy of the IPH as part of the memory exercise authorized by the Court.
Witnesses described the incident in which four people were arrested aboard a white Silverado pickup truck.
After hearing the testimonies, the members of the Court scheduled the appearance of more witnesses for next Monday at 12:30 p.m.
At least 32 witnesses will be heard in this trial as part of the evidence presented by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the legal defense of the accused; so far only five witnesses have appeared.
According to the indictment, on the day of the attack at approximately 9:30 p.m., Luis Ángel CH along with Marcelino LR, Irving Javier RN, Ángel Gabriel TH and José Manuel FDL were aboard a blue 1999 Jeep Cherokee with Chihuahua license plates, at the intersection of Sierra Vista and Hacienda Laborcita streets, armed and with LR at the wheel.
CH then got out of the car and fired his firearm at a person who now acts as a witness whose identity is reserved (because he survived), but he repelled the attack also with shots, so the accused then shot Gustavo Acosta Sáenz, who died on the spot.
The cause of death was ruled as brain laceration following penetrating gunshot wounds to the skull.
The other three who were traveling in the Jeep while the attack was taking place were watching the area, according to information from the Crimes Against Life Unit.
In addition to those five participants, there were eight others. In another car, a red Honda Civil with current license plates, the area was being watched by Ángel HS, Francisco Javier RR, Erick Enrique GH, Iván Adrián FQ and Gabriel Alejandro VV; and in a white 2005 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck with foreign license plates from New Mexico, Gerardo OH, Juan Francisco MG and Daysi Saraí MV were “watching”, according to what was stated in the hearing prior to the presentation of evidence gathered during the supplementary investigation period, which will be presented during the oral trial.
The 13 were arrested at the intersection of Hacienda de Medina and Hacienda Ivarbol streets after the attack, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The first five, who allegedly directly attacked the fallen agent and the injured person, were carrying a rifle-type weapon with a 30-round magazine, in addition to 30 live .223-caliber cartridges, as well as a 12-gauge shotgun; 58 .22-caliber cartridges, 30 .45 lead cartridges, 100 .45 cartridges, 88 .38 cartridges, 76 flat lead bullets and 12 hollow-point cartridges, six cartridges for the shotgun, a 9 mm magazine for 19 bullets and another for 16 shots.
Meanwhile, those in the Honda Civic were allegedly carrying a 9mm Uzi and a .22-caliber revolver.
Regarding Gerardo OH, it was stated that a .380 caliber pistol and three live cartridges in the magazine were seized from him; Juan Francisco MG was seized a .380 caliber pistol with three live cartridges in the magazine, and Daysi Saraí MV, a .22 caliber pistol with a magazine and three available bullets.
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