A 15-year-old boy is in custody after allegedly shooting and killing Christian Adrián Maddalena, 32, in Moreno, Argentina, following a scheme to defraud the victim over a motorcycle sale. Maddalena died Sunday morning after three days in hospital, succumbing to a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
The incident began on Thursday, February 26th, when Maddalena was lured to a meeting under the pretense of purchasing a motorcycle. According to investigators, Maddalena had recently received an indemnity payment of 11 million pesos for a prior accident and had shared this information within his neighborhood, Las Catonas. This information reached the ears of a group of young criminals, who then contacted him with a false advertisement for a motorcycle.
Despite warnings from his father, Maddalena went to the meeting, where he was confronted by three individuals posing as sellers. The assailants robbed him of his Motorola G20 cell phone, his wallet containing approximately 60,000 pesos, and then shot him.
In a striking turn of events, the 15-year-old suspect was turned over to authorities by his own mother shortly after the attack. Neighbors and family of the victim had confronted the boy’s mother, knowing her son was allegedly involved in recent robberies as part of a juvenile gang. The boy, deemed legally inadmissible due to his age, has been placed in a juvenile detention center and is subject to intensive custodial treatment.
The case is being investigated by the Unit 6 of the Juvenile Criminal Responsibility Court, under the direction of prosecutor Moahmed Eslaiman and secretary Sebastián Di Leo, as “aggravated homicide with the use of a firearm, in conjunction with aggravated robbery with the use of a firearm.” Prosecutors believe the 15-year-old was the perpetrator and have identified one accomplice, while the involvement of a third individual is still under investigation.
Authorities describe the crime as a planned robbery, with the perpetrators specifically targeting Maddalena after learning about his recent financial windfall. The victim reportedly told the attackers he did not have the money from the settlement on his person at the time of the shooting.