Reports of a gang that has killed witnesses to assaults

SANTO DOMINGO. Residents of the sectors of El Abanico, Ivan Guzman Klang, Las Caobas and Alameda yesterday termed it "a danger" to walk along the stretch of road known as the 27 February Extension, where according to their complaints, each week several persons are assaulted and in the last eight days, three persons have died at the hands of a group of men who are ravaging the area.

The last case occurred on Saturday, when José Luis Matos, 47, shouted that they were assaulting a man and was killed with a gunshot by one of the three men that were traveling on a black Bajab motorcycle. The incident occurred on the 27 February Extension in front of the entry to Bayona.

Matos was the father-in-law of Ivanessa Katrina Rodriguez Brito, who was murdered when she yelled that an assault was taking place on the 27 February Extension in Las Caobas, a part of West Santo Domingo, some weeks ago.

A report from the Police says that the three men that killed José Luis Matos, had previously taken a pistol from the retired second Lieutenant Paulino Capellan.

Likewise, Patricia Rodriguez complained that this same group assaulted her when she was trying to cross the same street last Friday, trying to go into the Ivan Guzman Klang Residence and was robbed of her salary of the last two weeks and her cell phone.

According to the young Rodriguez, the three men put a gun to her head and they "told me to hand over everything; given this situation I had no other resource than to give them my money."

Two weeks ago a group of residents in the community of El Abanico of Herrera, complained that a gang on board motorcycles killed Salvador Gonzales after he resisted an assault. "We are issuing a call for the police to exercise more control in this area, whoever attempts to walk or cross this stretch of 27 February, runs the risk of being assaulted or being killed," said Ms. Josefina Santana. Yesterday, Fausto Santos complained that this same group assaulted a young disabled boy who works in a pharmacy.

Santos explained that they took 2000 pesos in cash, as Alcatel cell phone and a ring from Miguel Rosario.

"We are desperate, we need more patrols because we can hide, we have to work, we have to walk, we have to reach our house at nighttime," he said the residents of the sectors are issuing a call so that the police come to their aid, arresting the responsible and returning the area to peace and quiet in which they "enjoyed before."

They called police action "brutal"

Action by the police was called "brutal," by Ms. Melania Ramos Familia as she referred to the death of her son Francisco Alejandro Vasquez Ramos, who died of a gunshot very early in the morning on Monday.

Doña Melania complained that her son was handcuffed by a police patrol, dragged and thrown in to the back of a pickup, where he was later shot in the left shoulder which perforated the left lung.

The body of Vasquez Ramos was taken to the Marcellino Vélez Hospital and was buried yesterday morning.

A brother of Francisco Alejandro complained that the doctor who wrote the report asked him if the shot was done from a second story, because it was on the very top of the shoulder." Junior Ramos, a cousin of the victim, accused the police of "finishing off a generation of young persons, because every day they kill one here in Herrera."

Yesterday, upon being asked about the issue, the Police spokesman Colonel Jacobo Mateo Moquete said that they were investigating the complaints in order to take measures in case it is necessary.