Shooting in Santiago leaves four dead, including a police sergeant
A gunfight on Avenida Circunvalación Norte in Santiago claimed the life of a Dicrim officer and three occupants of a silver Changan pick-up truck on Thursday, 12 June.
Four dead in confrontation between Dicrim officers and suspected criminals in Santiago
A sergeant of the National Police and three people travelling in a silver Changan pick-up truck died on the evening of Thursday, 12 November during an exchange of gunfire on Avenida Circunvalación Norte, Gurabo sector, Santiago, according to acento.com.do.
The fallen officer was identified as Juan Isaac Espinal Jiménez, 35 years old, with 13 years of service in the institution, eight of them in the Central Directorate of Investigation (Dicrim) of the Cibao Central region. Espinal Jiménez, who aspired to graduate as an engineer, left behind a wife and four children. He died whilst receiving medical attention.
The three civilian victims
The other victims were identified as Eduardo Paul Pérez Mercado, alias Maca, 39 years old; Edward de Jesús Pérez Silverio, known as Carlos or Coco, 36 years old; and Andrelina Santos Sosa, alias La Patrona, 29 years old. Pérez Mercado and Santos Sosa died at the scene of the confrontation. Pérez Silverio died later at the Tamboril Municipal Hospital.
Police surveillance and version of the incident
According to the preliminary police report, Dicrim officers were tracking Pérez Mercado and Pérez Silverio when they detected them moving together with Santos Sosa in the vehicle. Upon becoming aware of the presence of the investigators, the occupants of the pick-up truck allegedly opened fire, and the officers responded to the attack.
The Police stated that Pérez Mercado and Pérez Silverio were wanted for their alleged involvement in multiple violent incidents in Santiago. Among the cases attributed to them are the murder of Jesús María Cabrera Peña, the double homicide of Heidy María Gabriela and Ángelo Benjamín Hernández Rodríguez, alias Tres Pies, and the deaths of two National Police members in the Bermúdez neighbourhood. Both were also sought for an armed robbery. The institution linked them to a criminal structure which it attributes more than eight years of criminal activity. As for Santos Sosa, the Police indicated that she was the owner of the vehicle and that she was under investigation for her alleged logistical participation in a robbery that occurred in Tamboril. The investigations determined that the licence plate of that pick-up truck was used on 25 October in another vehicle from which four armed and masked men robbed a commercial establishment in that municipality.
Weapons and substances seized at the scene
The authorities confiscated at the scene two pistols, two 30-round magazines, one magazine with five rounds, a box with 15 rounds, a silencer, two bulletproof vests, two balaclavas, three pairs of gloves and a GPS signal jammer. They also collected four packages of a rocky substance, allegedly crack cocaine, and 34 nine-millimetre shell casings.
The Scientific Police processed the scene in the presence of the Public Ministry. The bodies were transferred to the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (INACIF) for standard procedures.
The Director General of the Police, Major General Ernesto Rodríguez García, expressed his condolences to the family of Sergeant Espinal Jiménez through the institutional spokesperson, Colonel Diego Pesqueira.
Source: Google News CL — Santiago