Public prosecutor seeks 9 months in prison for police officer who killed 8-year-old boy in Huacho
Sub-officer Luis Nazario faces charges of manslaughter after shooting a minor who was travelling in a motorcycle taxi. The preventive detention hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, 22 July.
Police officer investigated for death of minor following shooting during intervention in Huacho
Peru's Public Prosecutor's Office requested nine months of preventive detention for Police National Sub-officer Luis Nazario Chumbes, detained for allegedly killing an 8-year-old boy with his firearm during a police intervention in Huacho, north of the Lima region, the Public Ministry reported on Tuesday, according to biobiochile.cl.
The Huaura Provincial Criminal Prosecutors' Office is investigating the officer for the alleged crime of manslaughter against the minor. Assistant prosecutor Fernando Ayala stated that the action "would have been disproportionate, without prior warning nor real risk situation that would warrant the shooting".
The minor was travelling as a passenger alongside his mother in a motorcycle taxi when the vehicle suffered an accident in Huacho. The situation led to an altercation between the Police, the motorcycle taxi driver and other persons present. During that intervention, the child received a gunshot wound to the head.
Transferred in critical condition to the Children's Hospital in Lima, the minor died on Sunday. On Monday, the Public Ministry confirmed that the officer was "detained in flagrante delicto and would have caused the victim's death with a gunshot".
The Second Court of Preparatory Investigation of Huaura scheduled for Wednesday, 22 July, at 14:30 hours, the preventive detention hearing against Nazario Chumbes.
As part of the investigation, prosecutor Ayala ordered the seizure of the weapon and arranged for a ballistics report and an atomic absorption test. Furthermore, he instructed the taking of statements from the officers who participated in the intervention, obtaining recordings from surveillance cameras in the sector and recovering a video recorded by witnesses to the incident.
The case coincides with the recent coming into force of a controversial law that excludes from ordinary justice police officers and military personnel who commit crimes during the exercise of their duties. Human rights advocacy organisations reject the legislation, considering it a mechanism of impunity for state agents responsible for deaths.
Source: Google News PE — Crime