The Guardia Civil has arrested a suspect in the shooting that left a 25-year-old man dead on Saturday night, April 18th, on the balcony of a building in Calle Bergantín in Torrevieja. The Judicial Police squad is now looking for the alleged gunman who fled the area on a motorbike and almost crashed into a Guardia Civil patrol. Investigators have identifying information on the guy who discharged the firearm, and they believe he is involved in other crimes in the city. The horrific death is being examined as a possible settling of scores between drug- trafficking organisations. The dead man had been involved in a shooting a month earlier in the same neighbourhood against a rival gang.
Motorcycle
A 25-year-old male died of a gunshot wound in a shooting that took place about 10:30 p.m. on Saturday in Torrevieja. Shots were heard by patrolling officers in the vicinity who rushed to the scene where the young man, an Algerian national, was found gravely injured within the landing of a building located on Calle Bergantín, close to Playa del Cura. The young man was shot in the shoulder and armpit. SAMU paramedics tried advanced resuscitation manoeuvres but could not revive him and later proclaimed him dead.
The young man was shot by up to six rounds from the suspected shooter’s firearm from the street into the building’s entrance hall, which has a glass door. The windows, walls and railings of the building showed bullet hits. The shooter is believed to have been lying in wait for the victim.
Another shooting to report
Another gunfight happened around the same street a month ago, but it wasn’t known until this past weekend. On that occasion, the attack was carried out by the victim himself and others against a competing gang, wounding one individual, also of Algerian nationality. The people engaged in the earlier incident had just departed the ground-floor flat where they lived for the past month. “It looks like a settling of scores between gangs trafficking in cocaine, but we are investigating,” the source said.
The Deputy Government Delegate in Alicante, Manuel Pineda, declined to give further information of the incident that has prompted outcry on social networks about the insecurity and lack of resources available to the forces of law and order to combat crime in the city. In certain situations these crimes have been accompanied by racist attacks on the inhabitants of North African origin.
