Various witnesses were called by the Havana Tribunal to participate in a murder trial which began this morning, December 9th, against Amado Interian, a retired police officer who is accused of shooting a black, 14-year-old teenager on July 15th of this year. The teenager’s name was Alain Izquierdo.
According to Ismael Suarez Herce, a 17-year-old cousin of the victim who is an eyewitness to what happened, Interian (also known as “El Pinto”) caught the two of them climbing a mamoncillio tree on a farm. The approximately 60-year-old man got mad and said to them “Hey, negro, you’ll see what’s going to happen to you,” and then he shot his 45 caliber revolver. At the time of these acts, the former military man had a license to carry firearms.
The bullet entered Izquierdo’s body through his left buttock. It destroyed his femoral artery, passed through his kidney and reached his lung. Death was almost instantaneous. The funeral parlor gave the family a death certificate stating that the cause of death was acute anemia. Despite the demands of the family, the coroner never gave them any autopsy information.
The farm where this happened is located in Las Lajas, in Mantilla, a marginal neighborhood with a predominantly black population of low means which is relatively dangerous. Suarez Herce said that they dared to go there in order to jump into the Abelardo dam in Calvario to swim.
The former policeman, Amado Interian, was the head of the police sector in various localities in Arroyo Naranjo, the poorest and most violent municipality in the Cuban capital. Neighbors and family of the victim describe Interian as an angry man who was trigger happy. As a retired military man, he will be tried under the civil penal code which provides a penalty for the crime of murder of up to 15 to 30 years of incarceration.
The current location of the former official is unknown. He was being held in Valle Grande, the same place where the older brother of his victim was, awaiting trial. Prisoners residing in the Mantilla zone are sure that he is not there or in Combinado del Este, the maximum security prison located in Havana.
The victim’s mother, Raiza Medina, believes that they want to exclude her from participating in the trial of the man accused of killing her son. She has not received any summons as an affected party. An official named Aiza, who attends to victims at 100 and Aldabo, told her that affected parties are not summoned. She recommended that Raiza contact the official in charge of the case. As of today, no one in the criminal investigation division has responded to her calls.
Translated by: Hank
December 9 2011
