The Civil Guard maintains a large operation this Monday to locate the perpetrators of the shooting that took place on Sunday night in the El Rocío neighborhood of the town of Isla Cristina (Huelva, 21,525 inhabitants), in which three people died, including a pregnant woman and a minor, and two others were injured, one seriously. The main hypothesis of the investigation, declared secret, is that it is a settling of scores between family clans.
The events occurred around ten o’clock on Sunday night, when two hooded individuals approached the El Rocío neighborhood on a motorcycle. The man riding behind on the vehicle then pulled out a long gun and began shooting at several people who were on the street. As a result of the attack, a 39-year-old woman, who was pregnant, and her 62-year-old mother died. Also, a 16-year-old minor who, according to sources from the investigation, is not related to the other two victims. Another young man, 18 years old and son of the pregnant woman, was also injured in the incident and is in serious condition after receiving several gunshots, although he managed to take refuge inside the house. Another person — whose details are unknown — suffered minor injuries.
Sources close to the case assure that the investigation practically rules out any hypothesis other than a settling of scores, since the two murdered women are the sister and mother of a man known as El Baba, alleged perpetrator of the death of another person in the El Torrejón neighborhood, in a shooting that occurred in the city of Huelva in September 2024, in which two other people were injured to varying degrees. The alleged killer was arrested a month later in Gijón, where he had fled to hide at relatives’ homes. After being brought before the court, the number 3 court of the Asturian municipality sent him to provisional prison, communicated and without bail as the alleged perpetrator of a murder and attempted murder, according to judicial sources.
Since then, various confrontations between clans have followed, until this Sunday the most serious of all occurred with the death of three people. After the crime, the Civil Guard activated a large security and search operation to locate the alleged perpetrators, both the material author of the shots and the motorcycle driver. The National Police also began an investigation in Huelva. Sources from the Armed Institute have emphasized that any information related to the case can be provided confidentially through phone 062 or at any police station. The proceedings remain under secrecy of the investigation.
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“The scene was horrific,” said the mayor of Isla Cristina, Jenaro Orta, this Monday, who emphasized that “a huge number of shell casings” were found near the shooting. The mayor reported that shortly after the shots, a motorcycle was found burned in an area near one of the campsites located at the entrance of Isla Cristina. All indications point to it being the vehicle used by the attackers to flee after the crime and that burning it was a maneuver to hinder the identification of the perpetrators and eliminate evidence that could be relevant to the investigation. “They wanted to distract us,” Orta said.
Lockdown in Huelva
Isla Cristina woke up this Monday with a notable presence of security forces. The operation deployed by the Civil Guard continues to focus both on locating the perpetrators of the triple crime and on preventing possible new violent episodes derived from events that have caused deep shock in the municipality. It has been established both in specific places — the El Rocío neighborhood itself or even the funeral homes where the bodies will be taken — as well as in the perimeter of the town and the nearby border with Portugal. “It will remain as long as necessary so that citizens feel safe,” said the Government’s deputy delegate in Huelva, María José Rico, who asked for calm both from the population and vacationers, since Isla Cristina is one of the main tourist spots on the Huelva coast. “This is an isolated, totally exceptional event, probably the result of a settling of scores between clans that, fortunately, happens in a very exceptional way,” she emphasized. “We hope they locate the perpetrators soon,” she insisted.
At the same time, the National Police has reinforced preventive surveillance and the presence of officers throughout the city of Huelva, but especially in the El Torrejón neighborhood, with the aim of avoiding possible incidents or reprisals. Measures have been intensified in recent hours through increased controls and police presence in an area that was already the scene of the fatal shooting in 2024 and that now returns to the focus of the investigation following what happened in Isla Cristina.
