The deadly beating who received a 21 year old at the exit of the Brisas nightclub of the Paral·lel avenue in Barcelonaon October 30, did not start for a violent robbery of the victim, according to sources consulted by EL PERIÓDICO. After six months of research and 10 arreststhe Mossos d’Esquadra It is still not clear why that group -made up of nine boys, one girl, three of them minors and only one with a previous history- stabbed and kicked the victim until ending his life, although they suspect that it all started with a absurd incident in the disco and ended in the worst way on the street.
The victim, a young Moroccan, had gone that night in the company of a friend to the controversial nightclub, which would close months after this event after years of neighborhood protests and litigation with the Barcelona’s town hall. When leaving the premises, at dawn, the victim was attacked by the group. His companion stayed behind at that moment and was able to flee.
Several witnesses took out the mobile phone and they captured fragments of the beating –like the one published by this newspaper– that left a record of their cruelty. Some even approached the victim while she was dying and, instead of helping her, they recorded herin an identical reaction to the one that the witnesses who witnessed another death by stabbing of a young Moroccan that occurred on the big night of La Mercè in Barcelona had had a month before.
The confusion
The ten aggressors, after the murder, they fled Paral·lel avenue by the nearest metro station. One of them, however, had suffered a leg cut and his friends made him see that he was bleeding too much and was attracting a lot of attention: he had to separate from the group and go to the hospital on his own to hinder the escape of the rest. The wounded man obeyed and returned to the street, where he ran into the first policemen who had come to the scene.
The young man lied to the agents. He said that he had suffered a violent robbery by two young Moroccans. That was the start of hoax, which linked the fatal beating of the young man to a robbery prior to the attackers that had never occurred. The injured assailant was taken to the hospital. Hours later, the agents dismantled his alibi and arrested him. Although they did not know how involved he was in the fatal beating, they had no doubt that he had been part of the mob. He was released after a few days. But identifying him had put investigators on the right track.
It’s not a Latin band
He February 14thFour months later, the Mossos arrested seven suspects. Among them, there was again the wounded man, for whom a court order was necessary. The work to identify them had started from the environment of the first suspect but had been based on the recordings of eyewitnesses, and on security cameras from nearby establishments and from Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB). The policemen also had the information service of the Urban Guardwho recognized some of the faces that resisted the most.
Thus they were able to draw the profiles of each of the 10 involved and conclude that, despite initial fears, they were not members of a Latino gang, they remark. They were friends who were partying and were involved in an extremely violent group action, boys with no criminal record who lived with their families – of foreign origin – in homes in Horta, Sant Marti, sant andreu and new barris.
Jail and closed detention center
Four entered preventively in the jail. Two of them, minors, did it in a closed center, the most serious precautionary measure that can be issued against someone who has not yet reached the age of majority in Spain. There were seven arrested but there were ten implicated: there were three still in search and capture.
According to the investigations, the recording of the victim’s agony by some witnesses –among whom there is none of those investigated– is not related to the fight. Those who captured the death of the victim with their mobile phone, instead of helping him, did not do so in coordination with the aggressors.
On April 18, the Mossos arrested the three missing. Seven of the ten detainees have entered preventively in jail. Four are adults and three are minors. For the investigators, the fact that such harsh measures have been ordered by two different courts –the minors have testified in juvenile courts– speaks of the solidity of a job that has lasted half a year, but has allowed each of the offenders to be identified. 10 involved and prove that, regardless of who stabbed the victim, those investigated are co-authors of his death.
nightclub closed
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The Brisas nightclub, whose demolition is already planned by the City Council, has been involved in two homicides in the last five years: that of this young Moroccan in October 2022 and a previous one, which occurred in February 2018, when it was called Koko Premium and a 28-year-old client of Dominican nationality was shot multiple times on the dance floor. The place has been the usual scene of arguments or violent confrontations that have exasperated the residents of Avenida del Paral·lel. The Mossos were aware of a dozen serious fights in 2022 prior to the fatal beating.
In January 2023, the owner returned the license to the Barcelona City Council. The Brisas nightclub is affected by a special urban improvement plan, approved by a plenary session held in January 2022, and which will involve the construction of a student residence.