Yesterday morning, Wednesday 17 October, a German national was killed by the police and three policemen were injured by gunfire during a raid on a house in La Mulata in Sosua.
The incident occurred when the police tried to serve a search warrant at a house in La Mulata where it had been alleged there was a shooting range. They were met by gunfire.
Police spokesman Diego Pesqueira said that the owner of the property, Peter Brunck, 61, of Meisenheim, Germany, was arrested as well as a German woman, who was reported to have shot at the officers. Her identity has not been released.
He said that Brunck worked as a real estate agent in the Dominican Republic for several years and was the leader of a spiritual group called the “Academy for the Future Health,” which Pesqueira described as “a dangerous religious sect.”
The dead man was identified as Peter Demetrick, who was wearing a bulletproof vest and the injured policemen are Second Lieutenant Alejandro Toribio Minaya, and Privates Junior Zapata Zapata and Jose Ramirez Cespedes, all members of the Criminal Investigation Department.
At the scene the police recovered what they said was a weapons arsenal including an M-16 rifle, dozens of cartridges, five shotguns, four pistols, seven bulletproof vests, a blacked out vehicle and an indoor shooting range.
Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito and National Police chief Major General Jose Armando Polanco Gomez visited the scene, the latter stating that the foreigners belonged to a violent gang that operated throughout Europe. He went on to say that had the attending prosecutor and the police not acted in the way they did, they could have been dozens of deaths at the scene.
Dominguez Brito and Polanco Gomez have asked assistant prosecutor Bolivar Sanchez and General Ney Bautista Almonte to carry out an investigation.
Follow the discussions on this topic at www.dr1.com/forums/living/127467-king-la-mulata-death.html
www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2012/10/17/251402/Un-aleman-muerto-y-tres-policias-heridos-durante-tiroteo-en-Sosua
www.diariolibre.com/noticias/2012/10/17/i356073_extranjero-muerto-tres-policias-heridos-tiroteo-puerto-plata.html
www.theprovince.com/news/Dominican+officials+German+killed+shootout+with+police+others/7405726/story.html
www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2012/10/17/251489/Aleman-muerto-en-Sosua-formaba-parte-de-una-peligrosa-secta-religiosa