The mystery surrounding the recent killing of a 16-year-old graffiti artist by police officers in Bogota has caught national attention, including that of Vice President Angelino Garzon.
Commander of the Bogota Police General Francisco Patiño provided his official version of the event, which contradicts reports from the minor’s relatives, W Radio reported.
According to Patiño, the police responded to a call about “a robbery on a bus. [The call] spoke of three men and one woman, one of them with a fire arm. When they arrive at the site, the police begin pursuing the suspected robbers and one of them hides behind a pole, the officer fires and the man falls.”
Newspaper El Espectador reported that Garzon asked the Bogota Police to clarify the event, demanding to know which officer fired the shots that killed 16-year-old Diego Felipe Becerra. The vice president asked his “Police security team to try to locate the driver of the bus, which is essential because, after all, the bus was not driven by a ghost.”
Liliana Becerra, the mother of the slain minor, was skeptical of the police account. “Really for us, there are many doubts about the murder because there is a version of the Police but we are aware of the group of youths that were painting graffiti, they ran when they saw the Police and an officer shot my son in the back,” the grieving mother told Caracol Radio.
The case is being investigated by CTI, the investigation unit of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
“For transparency we have left the investigation of this case in the hands of the Prosecutor General’s Office, and within the institution they will also develop the necessary disciplinary investigations to clarify this case,” explained Patiño.