Neighbors of the neighborhoods of Constitución and San Telmo and civil organizations held a candlelit protest tonight in front of the Coto supermarket branch, on Brazil Avenue and Peru. They claimed justice for the murder of 68-year-old Vicente Ferrer, who last Friday was beaten out of the premises by two custodians after stealing two chocolates, a piece of cheese and a bottle of oil. The victim, he later, suffered from senile dementia, and according to eyewitnesses, security employees punched him and kicked him inside the premises and on the way out, despite having recovered the products.
An impromptu altar at the door of the Coto supermarket.
“I was coming back from my parents’ house at 19 and on the block of the Coto I saw that there were a lot of people around the man trying to revive him,” said photographer Nicolas Ramos, who divulged an image of the fact. “The police were trying not to see people who were deceased,” he added.
Yolanda, a neighborhood bakery employee, provided data on what happened. He said he saw an argument between supermarket security personnel and Ferrer, who, when held, threw the bottle of olive oil he had stolen to the ground. The woman witnessed the struggle between the custodians and the victim, who ended with Ferrer reduced, face down against the floor, “complaining because he couldn’t breathe. He asked to be released.” The man lost consciousness, and in the face of the delay in the arrival of a SAME ambulance, police officers performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) maneuvers. The victim was then transferred to Argerich Hospital in La Boca, where at 19.45 her death was reported. According to preliminary autopsy report, Ferrer died from a brain haemorrhage. The case was involved by Judge Dario Bonanno, who ordered the arrest of those involved in the event, identified as Gabriel Alejandro De la Rosa and Ramón Cerafín Chávez, for the crime of murder.
