The Civil Guard has announced the arrest of the alleged perpetrator of the murder of David P., an 11-year-old boy, committed this Thursday in a cultural center in Villanueva de la Cañada (Madrid). This is Julio B., a 23-year-old Peruvian young man who suffers from autistic disorder and who was arrested hours after the murder. He now remains in the psychiatric unit of the Móstoles hospital. The boy was stabbed several times while he was in these facilities and, although the health services managed to recover him from cardiorespiratory arrest, he finally died in the hospital. The aggressor and the victim knew each other because the former used to interact with the local Romanian community, to which the child belongs. Furthermore, according to several neighbors and relatives of the victim’s family, the attacker used to hang out with minors.
The 112 emergency service was notified of the event in a call around 7:45 p.m. this Thursday. When the emergency teams arrived at the La Despernada cultural center, the minor, 11 years old, was in cardiorespiratory arrest due to injuries to the chest, neck and back. The attack occurred near the cultural center’s bathroom.
According to several witnesses, David was finishing his English reinforcement class that day, when he prepared to go to the bathroom. That was the moment in which the aggressor took the opportunity to approach the minor and attack him. Some witnesses present this Friday at the minute of silence that took place in the Plaza de España in Villanueva de la Cañada have also spoken of a previous scuffle between the young man and the child.
This Friday, part of the little boy’s family attended the minute of silence that was observed in the Plaza de España, very excited and still in a state of shock for what happened. The mother has not been able to attend because she is tremendously affected by what happened. “It is the most difficult day since I have been mayor. What was unthinkable has happened and we still cannot believe what happened. The human mind is what it is,” said the mayor of Villanueva, Luis Manuel Partida, who specified that the attacker was “under treatment.” The mayor of Brunete, Mar Nicolás, has pointed out that the minor lived with his family in Brunete although he “made his life” in the neighboring town, where he died. The mayor has stressed that although the minor’s family is foreign, the deceased was born in the Community of Madrid and they are “just more brunetenses.”
After the tribute in the Town Hall square, some of the boy’s friends and part of his family went to the cultural center where the homicide occurred. There, Raúl M., a relative of the little boy, has assured that he fully trusts the investigation of the Civil Guard but has expressed his fear that the mental state of the aggressor means that he will not go to jail. Julio’s mother has confirmed in statements to TVE that her son has grade 3 autism and has told the reporter that he used to hang out with minors because his brain is that of a child. He then turned to David’s mother and asked for forgiveness through tears.
Many of the members of the Romanian community of Villanueva, who are celebrating their Holy Week these days, have remembered that the alleged murderer used to attend their masses and celebrations a lot. One of the women, Alina T., 40, has indicated that the aggressor was a “withdrawn” boy whom she remembers seeing at the carol rehearsals they did in church. “His bad luck was meeting someone who intentionally hurt him,” he added.
David was badly injured at the entrance to the toilets and Julio ran away. A police officer who was not on duty at that time was the first to find the badly injured child and called 112. The paramedics managed to reverse the stop, stabilize him and transfer him with a critical prognosis by helicopter to the 12 de Octubre Hospital in Madrid, where he finally died. In the next few hours an autopsy will be performed, which will provide more answers about how the attack on the little boy occurred.
Judicial police and citizen security agents from the Civil Guard are working on the investigation of the event. Throughout the morning of this Friday they have combed the town inch by inch in search of the murder weapon, which the detainee threw at a point that has not been specified.
The Villanueva de la Cañada City Council published a statement at night in which it conveyed its “deepest condolences” to the family of the minor who died in the “unfortunate event” that occurred in the municipality. “In these moments of enormous pain, we want to send you our closeness and commitment for everything you need,” he continues.
