The Civil and Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice (TSJ) of Extremadura has acquitted a police officer accused of shooting an escaped prisoner in Cáceres, resulting in his death, considering that he committed a slight imprudence.
The higher court therefore revokes the sentence of the Provincial Court of Cáceres that found him guilty of less serious reckless homicide and that sentenced him to pay a six-month fine at a rate of 15 euro per day and to pay compensation to family members (parents and a brother) of the deceased.
The facts date back to March 2, 2018, when the twenty-four-year-old with a criminal record (robbery with force) was a preventive prisoner in the Cáceres Penitentiary Centre, it became necessary to complete some proceedings in judicial headquarters.
Therefore, once the corresponding order was issued for his transfer to the court building, at around 9:48 a.m. he arrived in custody in a police vehicle at the underground parking lots of the Palace of Justice.
One of the agents opened the door of the driver’s vehicle to get him out, at which time he received a strong impulse backwards with the door that the detainee violently pushed, throwing him to the ground, at the same time as his partner, heading for the prisoner’s exit door to support his safety, was also attacked and severely beaten with a crutch by the detainee (who would never have been handcuffed while driving).
At that moment, he fled from the car, through the access ramp to the parking lot and, before the entrance gate was completely closed, he managed to flee through the gap into the street and the chase began.
The TSJ understands, unlike what the Provincial Court maintains, regarding the last moments of the persecution, that when the agent takes his weapon out of his pocket he does not act recklessly (less seriously), but rather adjusted the intensity in the use of the weapon to the concurrent circumstances.
Thus, he asserts that, in compliance with the regulations, he fired shots into the air without ever aiming directly at the fugitive. And as the appellants maintain, if the use of intimidating shots was justified, he cannot be required to put the safety on the weapon between shots, especially in a chase at full speed and in which the prisoner had turned to face him.
The shot that ended the life of the prisoner was made with the support weapon and after having dropped it after a stone was thrown by the escapee, these circumstances, the Chamber sentences, is an infringement of the duties of care, but minor.
The judgment is not final and an appeal can be made against it before the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court.
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