Diego L. knew he was going to die and announced it three times. First, to his father, whom he managed to call while mortally wounded. The call lasted 40 minutes because the phone remained off the hook in his pocket, but all that could be heard from him was: “They have killed me.” Then, he told his friend María José: “They killed me, but don’t worry, everything will be fine.” Finally, to his partner, Tatiana, six months pregnant, who arrived after the crime: “I love you all, but I’m not going to live.” His alleged killer listens to what Diego’s family members say without showing any reaction on his face. This is the first time a youth gang, the Dominican Don’t Play (DDP), is being tried in the National Court, in a case where 14 other gang members are also accused.
February 5, 2022, was a tragic night in Madrid, when the gangs acted with all their brutality. A 15-year-old minor died in Atocha, another was terribly injured in Montecarmelo, north of the city, and Diego was macheted in a park in the south of Madrid, in the Usera district. The emergency phone did not stop ringing.
Around ten at night, Diego, 25 years old, was hanging out on a bench with some friends when about ten black shadows surrounded the group before they could realize they were in the middle of an ambush. “My instinct made me turn around and I saw five more guys with machetes and hooded,” María José, one of the girls who was on the bench that day, recounted. Everyone escaped except Diego, who received several stab wounds, including a machete blow to the back that exposed part of his organs. “He had a problem with his foot, so maybe that’s why he didn’t have time to run,” this friend said in her statement.
That night, a National Police investigation began to clarify who had attacked the group and killed the young man, but there was already another underway by the Civil Guard investigating the members of the criminal group allegedly behind the homicide, the Dominican Don’t Play gang from Seseña. The Civil Guard was after this group following another attempted homicide that had taken place a few months earlier in that town in Toledo. Both investigations merged and have ended up leading to the first case against a gang in this court.
The reason this group is being tried for the first time in the National Court is that the Civil Guard found in its investigation evidence that these gang members were engaged, among other crimes, in the manufacture of counterfeit bills, and this fact can only be tried in this court. Thus, this case combines the charges of belonging to a criminal organization, manufacturing counterfeit currency, and the homicide of Diego, for which only one of the accused named Daniel I. is being prosecuted.
On the first day of the oral hearing, almost all the defendants agreed with the Prosecutor’s Office to admit their membership in the DDP and the manufacture of currency, to accept sentences ranging from one and a half to five and a half years in prison. So, for the rest of the oral hearing, testimonies will be heard and evidence related to the homicide case will be examined.
The main evidence against the accused of delivering the machete blows to Diego are the images recorded by several security cameras of the car in which Daniel arrived along with the rest of the DDP and the identification made by a friend of the deceased victim who was able to see the material author. This young man is considered a protected witness because he claims to be “afraid” that “things might happen.” He has appeared in court with his face covered and his voice distorted.
The police investigation intercepted conversations of the leader of the Seseña gang, nicknamed Tolín, who in this trial has accepted the sentence for belonging to a criminal organization. In these talks, he comments on what happened that night with another gang member nicknamed Lomina.
Tolín: Bastard, there were two and the other were probably the Tigers. Was it all a coincidence? —he asks referring to the two homicides that night. Another of the accused in this case answers yes, to which the leader replies—
Tolín: The Tigers (the minors) are deployed, Madrid is going to get heated, you are Toledo, don’t come down even if they do.
Lomina: He was Colombian.
Tolín: The one who died?
Lomina: The one from Usera.
Tolín: I think the ones from Atocha were from Lavapiés. What’s the Colombian’s name?
Lomina: Diego.
According to the reconstruction by the head of Homicide, ten members of the DDP went to the vicinity of the park on Carabelo Street around eight in the evening. They inspected the area and watched who was in the park at that time. When they had already planned the attack, they returned to the vehicles to get the weapons and attacked Diego’s group from different angles. “They did it in a surprise manner, so they couldn’t escape,” said the chief inspector.
Diego was 25 years old, worked in a restaurant in downtown Madrid, and sometimes acted as a barber at home with his friends. He lived very close to where he lost his life with his father and his partner Tatiana, who had their son alone three months after his death.
The victim’s father explained before the judge how that last conversation with his son was, in which he could only sob while Diego said goodbye to him. The court had to suspend the session for a few minutes because the man became emotional.
The chief inspector also revealed that when they arrested the accused of killing Diego, he calmly asked:
-What homicide are you accusing me of? The one in Atocha or the one in Usera?
