Dominican Republic Police agents spring colleague out of jail (Update)

San Francisco, Dominican Republic.- Police general Miguel de la Cruz Reyna on Friday revealed that the agents who sprung their colleague out of the courthouse jail cell on Thursday did so to protect his life.

Although he didn’t justify the agents’ actions, De la Cruz affirmed that they acted on a “reliable” tip that their colleague Marino Alonzo Torres was about to be lynched by an armed group of “at least 10 people.”

The National Police also announced that De la Cruz has been suspended as the region’s commander pending an investigation.

FILE.- Citizens were startled and indignant when National Police agents stormed a cell in the local courthouse to release by force a colleague jailed for his role in the June 3 shooting death of the youngster Emmanuel Diaz.

Duarte province prosecutor Regi Reyes said Thursday’s unprecedented development was an assault by police who took out by force Torres, blamed for Diaz’s death in an alleged shootout with agents.

He said despite that the detainee was in custody of the Office of the Prosecutor, senior officers headed the action he called unforgivable.

Local journalists demand penalties and claim that the police officers exerted police brutality during the action, in which agents assigned to the Northeast Region Command brought Torres out, violating the judge’s ruling of the three months in jail during the investigation.

The police beat several cameramen TV Telenord and photographers from other media covering the as-yet-unexplained incidents, which Police chief Jose A. Polanco vowed to “thoroughly” investigate.