President Luis Abinader and First Lady Raquel Arbaje attended the wake of the young architect Leslie Rosado on 5 October 2021. Preliminary reports by the Public Prosecutor’s Office indicate Rosado was murdered by a shot made by an off-duty police corporal in Boca Chica. Abinader described the Saturday, 2 October, crime as “an intolerable act of savagery.”
Abinader promised the reform of the Police contemplated by his administration would not be another “patch” but would be a true transformation of the police force. The Police is questioned for internal corruption and violent methods of the police agents.
“We are working to make this reform as it should be,” said the President. He urged all to “work together” to promote “a less violent society”.
According to information released by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Police corporal Janli Disla Batista, who was off duty, went in pursuit of a SUV in which the architect and her 15-year old daughter were traveling home after attending the birthday party of her father in Boca Chica. Disla Batista is charged with firing the shots, including the one that killed Rosado.
The police officer involved, who is in custody, claimed that the shooting that killed Rosado was accidental and assured that the events occurred after a traffic accident involving his family. Prosecutor Milciades Guzmán says the family of the corporal nor the motorcycle of the policeman show any evidence of the supposed accident that Disla Batista says was the reason or the pursuit of the woman.
In recent years, there have been several high-profile cases in which members of the Dominican security forces have been held responsible for the death of civilians in apparently unjustified actions. Among them, last March a religious couple was shot dead by four members of a National Police patrol at a roadblock in Villa Altagracia, west of Santo Domingo.
After that crime, Abinader launched the work of the committee dedicated to the reforming of the Police, a task which, as he acknowledged on 5 October, will be “difficult” considering that within the Police “a structure” has been formed which “has been like this for decades.”
The details of the case are still being unraveled and are confusing. In a new development, the large truck that was seen in surveillance video trailing Disla Batista as he went in pursuit of the SUV is now said to belong to the Navy. The detail was shared by Rafael Castillo Nova who turned himself in as the other person who rode on the motorcycle in which Disla Batista went in pursuit of Rosado. Castillo said he was just a motorcycle taxi driver who Disla Batista forced at gunpoint to give him a ride, as reported in Noticias SIN.
The preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for Thursday, 7 October 2021.
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6 October 2021