19-year-old detained over racist gunfire at supermarket in Lleida
Mossos d'Esquadra arrested a 19-year-old accused of shooting at a premises on Girona street and inciting attacks on Pakistanis on social media.
Young man arrested in Lleida for shooting at supermarket and inciting racist attacks on social media
Mossos d'Esquadra arrested a 19-year-old on Thursday morning accused of firing around ten times with an air pistol at a supermarket on Girona street in Lleida, wounding two people. According to Google News ES — Crime (es), the Catalan police also attribute to him the dissemination of messages on social networks inciting attacks against Pakistani citizens and officers.
The arrest follows a series of incidents in recent days that have pitted groups of young people—mostly minors of North African origin—against Pakistani and Hindu shopkeepers in the city. The mayor of Lleida, Fèlix Larrosa, attributed the altercations to personal quarrels between those involved. Shopkeepers from both communities claim, however, that they had been suffering robberies, assaults and damage to their establishments.
Tensions escalated over the past weekend, when around fifty Pakistani citizens gathered with the intention of "intimidating," according to the mayor, the young people they held responsible for those incidents. The disturbances have already led to several arrests and have prompted Mossos and Guardia Urbana to increase police presence in the neighbourhoods of Balàfia, Pardinyes and Clot.
The events attributed to the now-detained young man began on Sunday afternoon. A citizen alerted a public order team deployed in Parc sobre les Vies that a person was broadcasting live through a social network encouraging attacks against Pakistani citizens and members of Mossos. Officers watched the broadcast and recognised the user as a young man they had already identified from a previous incident.
Hours later, near midnight, a group of young people began to harass, threaten and direct racist chants at an Indian citizen, who had to take refuge in a supermarket belonging to acquaintances on Girona street. Subsequently, the young people caused damage to the premises and one of them fired around ten shots with the air pistol into the interior of the shop, wounding two men.
When police patrols arrived, the participants fled on foot or by scooter. Officers managed to detain one of them at that moment, a 15-year-old minor accused of public disorder.
The victims filed a complaint the following day and provided injury reports, as well as a screenshot of the user who, according to their account, had fired the shots. Investigators verified that this profile matched the one that hours earlier had made the broadcast inciting violence. After identifying the 19-year-old, Mossos located and arrested him on Thursday.
Catalan police attribute to him the offences of battery, public disorder, damage, threats and assault against the exercise of fundamental rights and public freedoms. According to investigators, the detainee had exercised a leadership role over the rest of the group.
The investigation remains open to identify and detain the other participants in the altercations. Mossos have already made around a dozen arrests related to these clashes; those arrested were released after making statements at police offices or before courts. The 19-year-old will be brought before the duty investigating judge in Lleida.
Source: Google News ES — Crime (es)