Spanish Police Officer Kills Member of "Gurasoak" Association in Iruñea

Iruñea-born Angel Berrueta was killed in his bakery; the police officer was arrested, as was his son.

by Asier Azpilikueta

IRUÑEA (Pamplona)

61-year-old Angel Berrueta-Legaz from Iruñea was killed at midday yesterday by a member of the Spanish Police in the bakery belonging to the former located in the Donibane (San Juan) quarter of Iruñea. The police officer was off duty and stabbed and shot Berrueta several times after a heated argument. It was alleged to have been a political argument (Berrueta was a member of the Gurasoak association [1]). The police officer who fired the shots was arrested and so was his son, who was thought to have taken part in the argument.

Angel Berroeta’s bakery is at 18, Martin Azpilkueta street in the Donibane quarter and the police officer lives next door in flat “C” on the first floor. According to neighbours, at about 13.30 hours the policeman's wife had had a heated argument with Berrueta about a poster saying ETA, ez (No to ETA); the neighbours were eager to stress that the woman did not go to that bakery to get bread, “as she always goes to buy bread at the bakery opposite”.

The woman appears to have requested or demanded that Berrueta put a poster in his shop window, but the latter refused. And that was how the fatal argument began. After that the versions given by the neighbours differ somewhat. Some say the police officer was outside and others that he was in the flat. Whichever the case, the woman called the police officer and he went into the bakery and shot and stabbed Berrueta several times.

The police officer and the woman left the bakery and went to their flat. According to a witness in the same block of flats the woman said, “It was my fault, it was my fault.”

*

[1] Gurasoak (“Parents” in Basque) is an organisation set up at the end of the 90s formed by the parents who support their young sons and daughters (under 21 and sometimes under 18) allegedly responsible for politically motivated street disturbances or having some kind of link with ETA. These parents demand that the presumption of innocence for their children should be upheld, that the special anti-terrorist laws, which involve incommunicado detention, etc., should not be applied to them, that their basic rights should be respected, and that they should not be imprisoned without evidence being submitted against them.