Tourist killed with a bottle pick in Barranquilla would belong to a gang dedicated to cell phone theft in Medellin

A homicide was reported early in the morning of March 28 in the city of Barranquilla. This is a murder that happened against 24-year-old Paisa tourist Andrés Echavarría, who had arrived to witness the Colombia National Team match against Bolivia last Thursday, 24, and then to enjoy Carnival days at La Arenosa.

The murder would have happened when Andrés left a concert with some friends who accompanied him, were approached by three subjects who stripped them of their belongings, but one of them also wished to take a gold chain from the young Echavarría who opposed and was injured by one of the robbers with a bottle pick in the neck, causing him death.

One of Andrés's companions explained to RCN in legal medicine: “The moment Silvestre Dangond and Ryan Castro's concert ends, which was at the Country Club, he and his wife are going to eat something. I get a little ahead of me with my husband... when we all meet, at the height of the cemetery, the group of men approach us and they take away a chain from me, my friend voluntarily handed over the cell phone, but they realized that he also had a gold chain, and they tried to take it away from him but he resisted and at that moment, another person arrived and with a bottle pick slit his throat”, mentioning that the thieves fled in a taxi waiting for them nearby.

According to the companions of Andrés Echavarría, who was originally from Turbo Antioquia, had two children. On the other hand, the Barranquilla Metropolitan Police indicated that the young man from Antioquia had a record for crimes related to theft.

“We are in a very quick investigation and we also found that this person was captured in 2016 by the Metropolitan Police of Medellín, this person was part of a band dedicated to cell phone theft at that time, it is what we have dedicated as history of this person”, commented the commander of the Metropolitan Police of Barranquilla, General Luis Hernández.

The General also pointed out that the investigation is under way to determine the whereabouts of the perpetrators of the murder.

In more court news from the 'Golden Gate': a new crime against a member of the LGBTIQ+ community in the Atlantic has this population appalled, who views with concern as crimes against them increased last year.

According to the NGO Caribe Affirmativo, the homicide was perpetrated on Tuesday, March 29 at dawn in Barranquilla and the victim was Javier Armando Murillo Martínez, a 26-year-old gay man, who was killed by gunfire when he was dealing with some close friends on 98th Street with a career 8th, in the Las Malvinas neighborhood.

“An individual who was on a motorcycle came up and shot him repeatedly. He was immediately transferred to the San Ignacio Clinic in Barranquilla, where he later died,” they reported on the organization's website.

With this new act of violence against the diverse population, alarm bells are again raised, since according to the Affirmative Caribbean, homicides of people from the LGBTIQ+ community increased to 38 murders or femicides of that group in that area, which represents an increase of 78 per cent compared to these same crimes committed in 2020.

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