Alleged killers’ ‘hail of bullets’ met with Dominican agents’ barrage of shots’

Santo Domingo.- Relatives of the four men shot dead Saturday by a police patrol on Sunday denied they were "contract killers" as the National Police affirms, and demand a wider investigation.

Ruben Dario Amador Arias (Nenê Paludismo); Rafael Manuel Vicente Amador, Rafael Emilio Pérez Peguero (Piti) and Jorge Martinez Vizcaino, residents of Bani, southern Peravia Province, were shot dead by police amid a hail of bullets in the sector Invivienda, Santo Domingo East.

Santo Silvio Arias, Amador Arias’ uncle, admitted that his nephew had criminal record and had been released just 40days ago after serving an 8-year sentence for drug trafficking. He denied however that his nephew was a hit man. "He was imprisoned for eight years but it was for drugs."

The National Police justified the agents’ action in which the four alleged assassins were killed. "It was a hail of bullets responded with a hail of bullets."

After reporting that the first universal right that every human being has is that of life, the spokesman for the police, Jacobo Mateo Moquete, reported that the institution knew who was going to stop and that they had two pistols and a revolver.

He said when agents ordered them to stop their vehicle, the suspects’ response "was a barrage of shots" instead.