After state police officers shot a 16-year-old youth in the leg late Friday on the outskirts of Acapulco, Guerrero, doctors had to amputate the limb due to the severity of the wound.
The young man, identified only as Mario, was traveling with his two cousins on Vicente Guerrero Boulevard on the way to visit their grandmother, when the officers signaled for them stop. They then asked Mario and his cousins to exit the vehicle for an inspection.
As he exited the vehicle, Mario was struck in the leg by bullets from an R-15 rifle carried by one of the officers, reported El Universal.
When his cousins asked for help from the police to get Mario to hospital they were ignored, according to the report. Unassisted, they took Mario to the local public hospital but after they were left unattended they took him to a nearby private hospital.
But there was little the doctors could do for the youth’s leg. Due to the damage the doctors decided to amputate.
News of the attack went unreported until Saturday night when Mario’s aunt, Dalia Díaz, posted on social media: “State police, treacherously and advantageously, fired shots without call and without preventative action against a blue Ibiza vehicle, in which three people were on board, including a minor, who was wounded by a bullet in his right leg. His leg had to be amputated due to the severity of his injury.
“The authorities have still not intervened because there were state police involved and they are covering up for them. The prosecutor’s office has not opened an investigation because of formal requirements …
“Please, federal, state and municipal authorities, we ask for your intervention, because the family has only limited resources and we do not have the funds to pay the hospital expenses. We ask the entire community for its support by sharing this message, since they left my nephew Mario abandoned. They didn’t even give him first aid …” the post read.
Governor Héctor Astudillo condemned the incident, offering his apologies to the family and requested the state’s attorney general Jorge Zuriel investigate.
“I ask for forgiveness from the family for the injury caused to young Mario. I offer a sincere apology. As governor I am not going to allow acts of excess and abuse to go unpunished. This is a deplorable situation.”
In a release, the state government confirmed that the police officers involved were identified and had been suspended. However, the statement did not reveal whether the officers had been detained, and how many had participated in the attack.
Source: El Universal (sp)
