There has been a notable increase in police patrols in Santo Domingo’s affluent Poligono Central. Nevertheless, two robberies made headlines over the weekend of Saturday 18 and Sunday 19.
A retired policeman was killed and another two men were injured in a shootout in Naco yesterday, Sunday 19 May. The Police reported that a 42-year old security guard, retired second lieutenant Faustino Medina Mendez was killed by several bullet wounds. He was on duty when the incident occurred. His co-worker Jose Julio Adames Nina was injured by a bullet in his left leg. The shooting occurred at 9am by Torre Cristal on Av. Tiradentes at the corner with Calle Carlos Sanchez, opposite the Claro telecom office at Torre Cristal.
The retired lieutenant and his assistant had arrived from Puerto Plata transporting three backpacks with an undisclosed amount of money. The guards, employees of Guardianes Lince, were on their way to deposit money at the Banco Providencial in Galerias de Naco when they were intercepted outside Torre Cristal, as reported in Hoy.
One of the assailants, Jairo Valenzuela Quirino, who shot at the two guards, was also injured. He was accompanied by two other criminals who escaped on a motorcycle. Valenzuela Quirino is being treated at the Francisco Moscoso Puello public hospital.
On Friday 17 May, the news covered the mugging of one of the grande dames of local TV and celebrity cook Socorro Castellanos in the same area. She is also the minister counselor of the Dominican Embassy in Cuba. She needed two stitches in the back of her head and was taken to the Corazones Unidos clinic for observation.
“It was horrible, traumatic and painful. I don’t understand why if he took my chain, he beat me up and dragged me on the sidewalk. And that it should happen to me when I am so careful after my stroke,” Castellanos told Hoy in a telephone interview. She was mugged at 8:30am on Calle Fantino Falco after attending mass at the San Judas Tadeo church for the third anniversary of her daughter Johana’s death.
She said that before the mugging she noticed that the man was well dressed, did not look like a criminal, and was driving his motorcycle on the sidewalk. In retrospect, she says that she realizes he was planning the crime.
www.elcaribe.com.do/2013/05/20/muerto-dos-heridos-tiroteo-tiradentes-investiga
www.noticiassin.com/2013/05/asaltan-y-golpean-a-la-comunicadora-socorro-castellanos-por-quitarle-una-cadena/
http://elnuevodiario.com.do/app/article.aspx?id=330348