Galicia Several suspects and many questions after the fatal beating of a young man in La Coruña
Last Thursday, July 1, was a designated date on
Samuel's
calendar
. After ten and a half months,
Galicia
reopened nightlife until three in the morning. Like any other
24-year-old
, going back to a club after so long was the perfect summer night plan. For
Samuel
, it was also a necessity. Since she was 20 years old, she worked in the
Padre Rubinos
nursing home
, after obtaining her nursing assistant degree at the
CIFP Ánxel Casal
de
La Coruña.
. Samuel had experienced first-hand the worst side of the pandemic in his workplace and the pressure he had been subjected to in the last year was great. For this reason, with his closest group of friends he went to spend the night at the
Andén
, one of the trendy pubs on the
Riazor
promenade
.
The evening exceeded expectations and the next day, Friday July 2,
Samuel
decided to repeat, this time with
Diego
,
Lina
and
Andrea
. At 10 pm they met at the first's house to go together in his car to
Riazor
. Once on the
platform
,
Samuel
and his friends enjoyed the night until almost three in the morning. Ten minutes before,
Lina
and he decided to go out to smoke and make a video call with
Vanesa
,
Lina's
partner
, leaving their other two friends inside, walking just a few meters away from the premises.
The story of what happened thereafter is told by
Lina
and
Vanesa
to EL MUNDO, visibly shocked and with a tone of voice that reveals extreme fatigue. "
Samuel
and I went out to smoke and I took the opportunity to call
Vanesa
, with whom I had been texting during the night. Since
Samuel
also knew her, she joined the conversation," says
Lina
,
Samuel's
friend
for six years. Both had studied the same vocational training cycle. Also, months ago she had started working in the same nursing home that he did. "The residents loved him very much, he treated them very well and made them laugh."
For her part,
Vanesa
, who knew
Samuel
through
Lina
, did not expect the call: "I had stopped talking to her for a while and was about to fall asleep. But when I saw that it was
Lina, I
answered."
His girlfriend and his friend appeared on the screen.
"
Samuel
had had such a good time and wanted to go out so much that during the call he tried to convince me to go out with him on Saturday as well," says
Vanesa
, to which
Lina
adds: "He was always happy and eager to make people laugh. otherwise, he was very sociable. "
"Either stop recording or I'll kill you, fag"
At one point in the conversation, however, what would end in the tragic denouement began. "
Lina
and
Samuel
were telling me stories from last night and they turned their mobile to show me where they had been walking,"
Vanesa
recalls
. His version of what happened next is totally consistent. "At that moment a boy and a girl passed together, about the age of
Samuel
(Lina is two years older), and he yelled at us to stop recording them."
Without caring it,
Samuel
and
Lina
were quick to explain to the young man that it was a misunderstanding, and that they were simply making a video call. Even
Vanesa
, on the other end of the phone, raised her voice to corroborate the version of her friend and his girlfriend. However, the man, addressing himself exclusively to
Samuel
, uttered the words that many of us still find it hard to forget: "Either stop recording or I'll kill you, fagot."
A
Samuel
only had time to utter: "Fagot what?".
He, who had never had to hide or be ashamed of his sexual orientation and who was surrounded by a family that respected him and friends who loved and accepted him.
"He never thought something like this could happen to him."
"From that moment I remember that the boy punched him very hard and I started screaming," recalls Lina.
"The video was blocked, but the audio was still playing and I did not know what exactly was happening. I only heard the blows and Lina yelling: 'Leave him, he's my friend, please leave him!'" Adds
Vanesa
.
Lina
he points out that "the girl who was with the boy tried to separate them at first, but when I got in she snapped at me: 'put aside that you don't paint anything here.'"
At that moment another young man appeared who interceded to try to get the aggressor to stop beating Samuel: "We were next to the disco, there were people nearby. A black boy got in to help Samuel and managed to separate them. Thanks to him, he did not continue beating him. I have not seen him again and I would like you to know that all of Samu's friends are enormously grateful for his brave gesture. "
"I knew I was not going to get ahead"
At first, the assailant gave up and left, leaving
Samuel
with visible bruises on his face. "I asked him how he was doing, but he told me to please go find his cell phone, that he had dropped it while the boy hit him. I saw him so nervous that I went to look for him and left him with the boy who helped him. No We knew the boy and the girl from nothing. They were young and, although he seemed from abroad, he had a perfect Spanish accent. That is to say, they were probably from
Coruña
. From the moment he opened his mouth we knew that he was looking for trouble. "
Vanesa
had lost the connection of the call for several minutes: "
Lina
did not pick me up and was calling those who were inside the nightclub when she called me again. She had an anxiety attack, she told me that
Samuel
had been hit and that She had gone to get her cell phone. Suddenly I heard her ask for help and the call was cut off again. "
While
Lina
was looking for
Samuel's
cell phone
, the boy who had attacked him 5 minutes earlier came back for him, this time accompanied by 12 other people, who took the opportunity to corner him and beat him to death. "I saw in the distance that a crowd of people were moving at high speed and I ran towards it. I heard someone yell 'you fucking fag!' When I arrived I found
Samuel
on the ground unconscious, they were gone, they had left him lying there and had run away. Samu had time to cross the street trying to protect himself. But when I saw him I knew he was not going to come out. go ahead".
What happened next was all very fast. "
Samuel
did not answer me, people began to surround us. A man said he was a doctor and helped me to put him on his side.
Andrea
and
Diego
arrived
and
after 10 minutes a
local police
car appeared
that was patrolling and called the ambulance and to the
National Police
". Samuel could not survive the beating and died in the hospital in
La Coruña
that same morning on Saturday, July 3.
Three days after the tragic event, the National Police has arrested 13 people directly or indirectly involved in the events, waiting for Court Number 8 of
La Coruña to
lift the secrecy of the case.
However, the homophobic words spoken by one of the alleged murderers during the attack have aroused a wave of social outrage on the networks that have overshadowed the Gay Pride celebrations and provoked the reactions of multiple public personalities under the
hashtag
#justiciaparasamuel
on
.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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Events
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