The Mossos d’Esquadra arrested last night the man who yesterday attacked six women on the metro platform at the Camp de l’Arpa station on line 5 of the Barcelona metro. The Catalan police are investigating whether there are more women attacked and have asked this Saturday on social networks for the victims to file the corresponding complaint. The investigators intend to assess whether the detainee can be accused of a “hate crime due to sexism”, as explained by the deputy head of the General Information Commissariat of the Mossos d’Esquadra, David Sánchez, in an interview with the Via Lliure program. from RAC1.
The events occurred shortly before ten in the morning when an individual, for no apparent reason, began to attack the women who were waiting on the station platform. There were also men at the scene, but the attacker did not attack any of them.
The suspect’s first victims were slapped or punched as the individual walked down the platform. Another of the attacked women was surprised while she was checking her cell phone, at which time she received a strong blow that knocked her to the ground and was slightly injured. Some media say that she could have suffered a perforated eardrum as a result of the blow, but this fact has not been confirmed.
After this attack, the man began to run and continued hitting people he passed. But only to women. TMB personnel managed to hold him at the same station until a Mossos patrol arrived. Surprisingly, the agents identified him and let him go: “At the time of the events, only one of the victims was at the station, who had minor injuries. That is not a reason for arrest,” the spokesperson for Via Lliure justified. the Mossos.
Later, however, the unit investigating the case received a medical report detailing “serious injuries” to the woman. In addition, the Mossos were able to view the images from the subway cameras, something that the patrol that appeared in Camp de l’Arpa could not do. The medical report, together with the viewing of the images, which show a gratuitous attack and a selection of victims by their gender, led the agents to search and subsequently arrest the individual.
The arrest was swift because the individual is “known” to the Catalan police, David Sánchez, Mossos spokesperson, admitted on RAC1. He has at least five previous records for common crimes and will be brought to justice today. It is not ruled out that the individual has been diagnosed with some type of mental illness.
The Minister of Equality and Feminisms, Tània Verge, has condemned the attacks on women in the subway on social networks and has recalled that they have at their disposal the attention services for sexist violence, including the telephone number 900 900 120.
The public company Transports Metropolitans of Barcelona, ??for its part, has also condemned the attacks on women.
