Three Buenos Aires city policemen were sentenced to life in prison this Tuesday afternoon for the murder of 17-year-old Lucas González and the attempted murder and illegal detention of three of his friends. The teenager was killed in November 2021, when the officers chased and shot at the car in which González and his friends were returning from football practice. They did not identify themselves as law enforcement.

In their ruling, judges Ana Dieta de Herrero, Daniel Navarro and Marcelo Bartumeu Romero of Criminal Oral Court (TOC) 25 found Inspector Gabriel Alejandro Isassi, senior officer Juan José López, and officer Fabián Andrés Nieva guilty of aggravated homicide on the grounds of the use of firearms, racial hate, premeditation, abuse of their roles as members of the police, and the participation of multiple people in the crime.

Of the eleven officers standing trial for the cover up the crime, one received an eight-year sentence for torture, five received sentences between 4 and 6 years, and five others were acquitted.

The court also requested the Chief and Deputy Chief of the Buenos Aires City Police be questioned regarding their role in the incident, after one of the officers accused of the cover up, Ángel Darío Arévalos, accused the Police Chief of pressuring lower ranked officers into saying they hadn’t heard anything regarding the shooting. 

Gregorio Dalbón, the lawyer representing Lucas González’s family, called the ruling “historic,” saying that the acknowledgment of institutional violence aggravated by racism is something “that has never happened before in Argentina.”

Asked for her opinion, Cintia López, Lucas’ mother, said she was “satisfied” with the sentences she received, adding that it brings her “a little peace.” Before entering the courtroom to hear the verdict, López had given her opinions on the policemen who murdered her son.

“I won’t forgive them, let God do that,” she said, adding that she hopes her son’s murderers “never leave prison, just like [Lucas] won’t ever leave the cemetery.”

“If there hasn’t been any sign of remorse until now, I don’t think there ever will be.”

López also said she was “distraught” at the fact the verdict came out this Tuesday, given that it was her birthday. “I shouldn’t be here, I should be with my son, celebrating my birthday. My life has been destroyed, I’m dead inside, no life or direction,” she said.

Héctor González, Lucas’ father, said he would request BA city mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta a hearing to ask City Police Day, which is November 17, the same day of his son’s murder, be changed. He also said he believed his son and his friends had been targeted for being “dark skinned,” adding that “racial hate” and “discrimination” had been a factor in the crime.

“[The policemen] stigmatized and discriminated, they looked at them twice because they had dark skin. They were exiting [the 21-24] slum, a poor neighborhood in Barracas, just leaving football practice. They saw them, chose them, then massacred [my son], while also torturing him,” said González, referencing the fact a cigarette burn was later discovered on Lucas’ hand.   

The case

Lucas González was returning from football practice with Joaquín Zúñiga (19), Julián Salas (19) and Niven Huanca (19) on November 17, 2021, when their car was suddenly cut off by another vehicle in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Barracas. In this car were Isasi, López and Nieva. They were in plain clothes and not identified as law enforcement. 

Thinking they were robbers, González and his friends tried to flee, leading to a four-block car chase. The officers shot at the car, hitting it four times. Lucas was shot twice in the head, and died the next day in El Cruce hospital in Florencio Varela, Buenos Aires province.

The other three were handcuffed and taken to a juvenile detention center, where they were released the next day after it was determined they were merely returning home after practice when the incident took place. 

-with information from Télam