An alleged ‘homeless’ murderer arrested in Barcelona after four deaths in a month | Catalonia

The Mossos d’Esquadra have arrested an alleged murderer of homeless people in Barcelona after four homicides in the city. This Monday there was the fourth crime of a man, who was found beaten to death very close to the Sagrada Familia, on Rosselló street. Catalan police arrested the alleged killer hours later, according to police sources. The Mossos suspect that the arrested could be behind three of the four cases, where the same way of acting is repeated: hitting victims who sleep in the Eixample neighborhood on the head, attacking them without prior notice, according to police sources.

The suspect, in his thirties and of Portuguese origin, according to police sources, was arrested in the city of Sant Cugat, very close to Barcelona, ​​at dawn. The man, according to those same sources, lives in a caravan in very bad condition in the area. The police followed in his footsteps after the latest murder.

The calendar places the first death on March 19, on Sardenya street, very close to a supermarket. In this case, it is the only one in which the victim, a man who sleeps on the street, was murdered with some type of knife. Then the Guàrdia Urbana arrested a possible suspect, but he was released because the evidence against him was inconclusive.

The second murder was committed on April 16 on Calle de Lepanto. A 23-year-old man, who also sleeps on the street, is shot to the head. The next, very similar, murder happens two days later, on April 18, less than a kilometer away. A man, in his 60s, is murdered while sleeping on cardboard in the street of Casp. The victim has blows to the head.

At half past eleven on Monday night the fourth murder occurred. Another man, who sleeps on the street, is killed with blows to the head on Rosselló street with Sardenya, very close to the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. The Mossos made a whip last night, as the SER chain advanced, after some witnesses claimed that they saw the author flee.

The Mossos d’Esquadra have toured the different places where the victims move, trying to know something about them, and the identity of the author. Various people have shown an image of the alleged murderer, now detained. In several places where it has acted there are video surveillance cameras.

The coronavirus pandemic has left the streets of the city deserted. This causes greater vulnerability for people who sleep in them. There are no people who walk through them or open establishments. The Barcelona City Council has opened emergency facilities, such as two pavilions at the Fira de Barcelona, ​​to protect them temporarily, but not many of them do not want to go for fear of catching the virus, despite the fact that there is no one infected, and because they cannot enter and exit it.

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