Two women were shot dead and a two-year old boy was wounded in the municipality of Villa Tapia on Sunday, 8 April. Two people have been arrested in connection with the incident. One was identified as Belarminio Polanco Toribio, who investigators described as the main suspect and the man who had a relationship with one of the victims, Leticia Liriano Ortiz, 23, a medical student. The other victim was named as Dianelba Ortiz, 33, an aunt of Leticia’s. Both bodies were found with bullet wounds in a house in the Polanco area of Villa Tapia.
The injured boy was taken to the Arturo Grullon Children’s Hospital in Santiago, where he underwent surgery to remove a bullet from his stomach. According to neighbors, Dianelba Ortiz and her three children, including the boy who was wounded, were visiting Leticia’s house on Sunday night. They added that one of the children who managed to get out of the house got help from an uncle, telling him that his mother was hurt. The uncle, who was not identified, then went to the house where he found the bloody bodies.
The chief of the National Police Northeast Command, headquartered in San Francisco de Macoris, General Manuel de la Cruz Reyna, said that several bullet casings were recovered from the crime scene. The District Attorney for the province of Hermanas Mirabal, Viturbo Cabral, said that the women had been shot four times.