They dictated preventive detention for the militant who shot during a protest in Neuquén

The militant of the Association of State Workers (ATE) of Neuquén, Pedro Jofré, who fired yesterday during a protest of state a firearm against different people in San Martín de los Andes, including press workers, was charged this afternoon with attempted homicide aggravated by the use of a firearm and will remain detained with preventive detention for eight months. Chief Prosecutor Agustín García, together with the team of the Prosecutor’s Office specialized in Homicides, intervened in person from a room in the Judicial City of Neuquén, in which the defendant was also present with his lawyer, Juan Coto, and the plaintiff lawyer of a photojournalist, and maintained that “there was a clear intention to kill the press workers, who he shot at close range.” Meanwhile, the judge of Guarantees who directed the hearing and the chief prosecutor of San Martín de los Andes, Fernando Rubio, together with the personnel of the Fiscal Unit of the mountain town, intervened remotely from that city. In the hearing of formulation of charges, the chief prosecutor maintained that the event occurred yesterday around 10.50 in the area of the municipal building, located on Roca and Juan Manuel de Rosas streets.He also explained that in the context of a protest of the state union ATE, two factions clashed and the defendant extracted a revolver and shot at photojournalists Federico Soto and Patricio Rodríguez, who carried out the journalistic coverage of the incidents and photographed him. Jofré also shot a woman, Helena Cabezas, who was working in the area and remains hospitalized after undergoing surgery. The member of the “Green and White” of ATE fired the shots with a revolver-type weapon, caliber 32, which he had taken to the place. Then, he threw the gun, escaped in a taxi and arrived in the city of Neuquén -430 kilometers away-.where he surrendered at night. The crime that the chief prosecutor attributed to him was “attempted homicide aggravated by the use of a firearm” – three facts – all of them in real competition, as the author.” The intention with which he fired the shots is accredited,” the chief prosecutor said at the hearing, adding that “there was a clear intention to kill the press workers, whom he shot at close range.” For his part, the representative of the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF), together with the legal assistant Guadalupe Inaudi and the legal assistant Bruno Miciullo, requested that the accused remain in pretrial detention for a period of eight months. The chief prosecutor argued that there is a risk that he will abscond, that he will hinder the investigation and the risk to the integrity of the victims.

Original source in Spanish