After taking an exam for which they obtained good results, Gerardo Vera, Román García and Iván Fuente went to celebrate it in the nightclubs of Arrecife. It was a little after 6:00 in the morning of Friday, March 24, when Gerardo, a student at the Fishing School like Román and Iván, took his two friends in his van to the School residence, where they live as interns.
Until the concierge arrived to open the door that allows them to enter the residence, Román decided to make the wait more bearable. On the other side of the School fence, the staff of the center's cafeteria had left some bags with expired products, probably to remove them in the trash the next day. Román reached through the fence, took some "donuts" from the bag and shared them with his two friends.
According to Gerardo, 28 years old, while they were eating the buns in the vehicle, two police cars appeared and parked in front of and behind his van. There were 4 local police officers and 2 national police officers, the latter were dressed in civilian clothes," says Gerardo.
The officers urged him to open the door and one of them gave me two slaps on the head, I told him that I was getting out of the car but not to touch me. Then he repeated that I get out of the car and that I was under arrest.
According to the young men's version, Román, 20, tried to explain to the officers that they were students and residents at the School and that they had done nothing. Then, Gerardo explains that "four policemen pounced on Román, hit him with the baton and put him in a chokehold. My friend started bleeding from his mouth and nose."
The police offered to take him to the doctor, but Román refused according to Gerardo "because after what they had done to him, he couldn't trust them." Finally, Román García was taken into custody and handcuffed. According to the young men's version, the detainee was subjected to taunts by the police during the journey to the National Police cell, where he was held for about 5 hours.
Gerardo explains that although he asked the police for their badge number, they refused to give it to him and they kept Román's two friends at the police station for a little over two hours for a relatively short procedure, such as filing a complaint, in this case, against the police officers involved in the events.
Apparently, at around 11:30 in the morning they went to the Arrecife Courts to attend a quick hearing. Román arrived in the company of the police and handcuffed. After learning the facts and talking to those involved, according to Gerardo, the judge ordered the immediate release of the young detainee and urged him to go to a hospital to heal the wounds that were still bleeding.
Hours later, with the injury report in his pocket, the three young men, accompanied by members of the teaching staff of the Fishing School, went again to the police station to file a complaint for assault, but Gerardo says that the officers refused to carry out the procedure. Then, at around 5:30 p.m. on Friday we went to the Investigating Court No. 3 and filed the complaint there.
Gerardo and his companions state that they are going to continue with the complaint so that other people do not suffer the abuse of authority by the police that they claim to have endured, although he makes it clear that "we are not against the police, we thank other members of the force for the support they are giving us." Gerardo says that they are having a bad time, "we have even spoken to a psychologist." Now the three students have to recover the exams that they have stopped taking these past days.
The police give their version
The head of the Local Police of Arrecife, José Antonio Laso, states that they have not received any official communication regarding the complaint that the young men say they have filed and the only thing he has in his hands is the report of the police action, which according to him "was a legal intervention, so far I have no indications to think otherwise." Laso declares that "they are waiting for a judicial resolution."
The officers allege that they had to subdue the young men because "one of the boys became agitated, resisted and attacked one of the officers," in reference to the detainee Román García. Laso states that "the theft of the pastries is not the trigger for the arrest, but the aggressions that the young man had against the police." Laso continues explaining that "whenever force is used to make an arrest, the detainee is taken to the doctor, but in this case he refused to be treated." They assure that only 3 officers intervened in the arrest and not 6 as the students claim, "it was an intervention by the national police supported by the local police."
