Tragedy in the small Granada municipality of Huétor Tájar. A 72-year-old man killed his two grandsons, aged 10 and 12, yesterday, and then took his own life at his home on Calle Alfonso Nobel, where he had been holed up since Sunday evening. As it transpired, the aggressor was going through a complicated time after the death of his wife and daughter, mother of the minors, in a car accident in which he was driving when he fainted and caused him to veer off the road. There were also two children in the vehicle, who survived the accident.
On Sunday at around 9 p.m., the son-in-law of the aggressor, after an argument with his father-in-law, alerted the local police that loud noises had been heard in the house and that his children were inside. The agents of this body and also of the Civil Guard went there, who were greeted with several shots in the air from a window, so they knew that the man was armed.
The grandfather also threatened to kill several family members who tried to intercede. It was then that help was requested from the special intervention unit of the Civil Guard, a team from Madrid that went to the municipality with a negotiator in order to get the man to lay down his weapon and leaving the house.
The communications, as explained by the delegate of the Andalusian Government, Pedro Fernández, lasted until five in the morning this Monday, when the man cut off all conversation and informed that he would focus on preparing the boys so that they could attend school However, there was no movement in the house, so at 8:25 a.m. the members of the special unit entered the home, at which time the children’s grandfather committed suicide with a shot with his shotgun 12 gauge, for which he had a license.
The agents found the Dantesque stage inside the house. The minors, who were in different rooms, had been killed, one by a single shot and the other, predictably, by asphyxiation, although the autopsy will determine the causes of death for both. Now the Civil Guard, which is keeping the investigation open to clarify the facts, is working with the possibility that the crime was committed on Sunday night and that the assailant had lied to them all morning.
The news of the murder of the minors shocked the entire municipality. The City Council decreed three days of mourning to suspend the events of the last day of the Labrador Fair. “We are dismayed”, said the mayor, Fernando Delgado, who conveyed his affection and support to the family, especially to the father of the victims, well known because he works in an educational center in the municipality. He added that, after the accident in which the grandfather lost his wife and daughter, many in the village knew that “he was not very well”, although no one could imagine “what he would do what have you done”, which has meant a “disaster” and a “tragedy” for the people.
The accident in which the man’s wife and daughter died was last March 19, the date on which Father’s Day is commemorated. According to local media, the daughter died in hospital after the accident, although the wife lost her life days later because she could not overcome the injuries she suffered. This Sunday marked two months since the tragedy, a traumatic situation that could have caused the assailant, whom one of his relatives described as a “normal” person, to lose his balance and end up acting in this way cruel
The president of the Board of Andalusia, Juanma Moreno, lamented the events on the X social network: “It’s terrible. All our affection to the families of the two children and the embrace of all Andalusia to the residents of the municipality”, he expressed. For his part, the leader of the PSOE-A, Juan Espadas, sent his “most sincere condolences and a strong hug to the family and relatives of the children, victims of this horror”.
