Pregnant police officer shot in Rivadavia police station: the weapon was borrowed
A police officer shot his pregnant colleague with a pistol that was lent to him, without knowing it was loaded. The case is classified as reckless injury.
Borrowed and unexamined weapon: how the shooting of the pregnant officer at Police Station 34 is being reconstructed
According to canal13sanjuan.com, the investigation into the shooting that wounded a pregnant police officer inside Police Station 34 of La Bebida has incorporated a detail that could prove decisive: officer Cristian Exequiel Albarracín allegedly fired a pistol that a colleague lent him for a procedure, without either of them knowing the weapon had ammunition in the chamber.
The new detail was revealed by Diario Huarpe, which accessed information from the case. According to the hypothesis being pursued by investigators, Albarracín could not find his own weapon when leaving to carry out a task, so a colleague gave him his to avoid delaying the procedure.
The victim: Mariana Sol Jofré Hausser, 29 years old and six months pregnant
The incident took place on a Monday morning at the police station located in Rivadavia. Mariana Sol Jofré Hausser, 29 years old and six months pregnant, was working as a clerical officer. She was behind the reception desk when she was struck in the back.
The projectile entered the left lumbar region. The bullet had an entry wound but no exit wound. Jofré received immediate medical attention and was transferred to assess the injury and monitor the condition of the pregnancy. Subsequent checks indicated favourable progress for both the officer and the baby. She was later referred to Cimyn for continued obstetric follow-up.
How the discharge allegedly occurred
According to the reconstruction that the court is attempting to establish, Albarracín left the police station carrying the borrowed weapon and returned to the station after completing the procedure. Upon his return, he allegedly handled the pistol again. The main hypothesis holds that he was unaware that the weapon had a bullet inside it, and that under these circumstances the discharge occurred that struck Jofré in the back.
No information released so far indicates that the shot was intentional. The reconstruction of the sequence in which Albarracín borrowed the weapon, left, returned, and handled it inside the station is one of the central lines of the investigation.
Judicial measures: expert examination, telephone and cameras
Albarracín remains in custody. The weapon was seized for technical expert examination. Investigators also ordered measures regarding the officer's telephone and took samples to determine whether there are gunpowder residues on his hands or clothing.
The case has been assigned to the Special Crimes Prosecutorial Unit. Prosecutors Roberto Ginsberg and Francisco Pizarro, together with assistant prosecutor Facundo Romero, are proceeding in parallel with witness statements and analysis of security camera recordings from the station.
These video records will be key to establishing how the weapon was handled in the minutes before the discharge and what exactly happened inside the station before the shot.
Provisional classification: reckless injury, but could change
For now, the case is provisionally classified as reckless injury. The legal classification could be changed depending on the results of ballistic expert examination, gunpowder samples, and witness statements incorporated into the case file.
The court will need to determine whether Albarracín was genuinely unaware that the weapon lent to him had a bullet in the chamber, and how the handling occurred that triggered the discharge inside Police Station 34 of La Bebida.
Source: Google News PR — San Juan