Brutal murder in Mendoza: he was killed by a stone in the head to steal his bicycle when he went to work

A 37-year-old man was brutally murdered on Monday in the city of Las Heras, in the province of Mendoza: a thief escaping an alleged robbery killed him with a stone in the head to steal his bicycle while he went to work.

The crime occurred yesterday Tuesday morning, a few minutes before 7 o'clock, when Emiliano Miguel Fernández was on his way aboard his bicycle to work in Cuyoplacas, a furniture company in the area.

The entire sequence was recorded on a private security camera and was witnessed by some witnesses: just a few meters before reaching the factory, on the East Side of the North Access, a subject jogging along the way threw a rubble at a very short distance and directly at his head.

Once he took it down, Emiliano - who worked for 17 years in the company's cutting area - was lying unconscious on the grass, the attacker took the bicycle and used it to flee.

The worker was immediately assisted and rushed in an ambulance from the Coordinated Emergency Service (SEC) to the Central Hospital of the capital of Mendoza, where he finally died a few minutes after being admitted due to the severity of the coup.

According to a witness, serene from another building located in the area where the attack occurred, Emiliano's killer had tried to break into an opening factory and fled when the alarms were triggered. At that moment he crossed in front of his victim, whom he attacked to steal his bicycle and escape.

A few hours later, the aggressor was identified, so the provincial Ministry of Security offered a public reward of 750 thousand pesos for those who provide accurate information about the whereabouts of Hector Fabian Maravilla Suárez, alias “Pitay”, a 20-year-old boy residing in the Democracia neighborhood of Las Heras, located just behind the factory area. The young man detained also has a criminal record for the last two years for theft and illegitimate carrying of a firearm, according to the newspaper El Sol.

In a break-in at his home, the provincial police first found the victim's bicycle, although there was no trace of the suspect. Later in the night, however, officers from the Homicide and Investigations Division found and captured the alleged murderer in a house in the 17 de Noviembre neighborhood of the department of Guaymallén where he was taking refuge.

Maravilla was transferred last night to Prosecutor's Office No. 9 in Guaymallén and was made available to prosecutor Gustavo Pirrello, from the Investigating Prosecutor's Office No. 17 for Homicide, who is in charge of the investigation of the incident. In the next few hours he is expected to be formally charged with the crime of homicide criminis causa and transferred to a penitentiary.

“Pitay”, according to the local press, is also the son of Carlos Martín Maravilla (42), sentenced to life imprisonment for the femicide of his ex-wife María Noemí Suárez (34), with whom he had 8 children, including the detainee. The incident was also reportedly investigated by prosecutor Pirrello: on November 11, 2016, Maravilla went to look for her ex at the house and, when she opened the door, he shot her dead.

This Monday morning, Cuyoplacas' co-workers cut the avenue in the North Access area demanding justice for Emiliano's crime and new security and lighting measures in the area.

“He was an excellent person, an excellent companion. A healthy guy, he rode a bike, went to the gym, liked boxing and trained unprofessionally,” said Emiliano's colleagues, who after the death of his father a few years ago lived with his brother in the Tamarindos neighborhood of Las Heras, from where he went to work every day by bicycle.

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