2021 murder in Spain
Samuel Luiz Muñiz, a 24-year-old nursing assistant, was beaten to death in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain, on 3 July 2021. According to several witnesses, including the victim's friends, the crime was motivated by homophobia, which led to country-wide demonstrations in his memory, and in defence of LGBT community. Following the initial investigation, the police initially disagreed that homophobia was a motive, on the basis of the suspects' claims to have been unaware of the victim's sexuality. However, later, during prosecution, the state prosecutor emphasised this discrimination against Samuel, as well as the extreme dehumanisation he faced regarding his sexual orientation. As of 5 October 2021, seven people have been arrested for his death; one of them was released until the trial.
Victim.
Luiz was born in Brazil and moved to Spain at the age of one. His mother was Spanish, and the family lived in Culleredo and later Arteixo, both in the vicinity of A Coruña. From the ages of 18 to 20 he studied to be a nursing assistant and worked as one in a nursing home while studying a further course to be a dental prosthetist. He played the flute in an Evangelical Christian congregation and did not disclose his homosexuality to his father, who was also of that faith. In a television interview, Luiz's father said that he had only spoken once to his son about the possibility that he was gay, but the young man did not want to continue the conversation.
Crime.
According to Luiz's female friend who witnessed the crime, they were on a night out and stepped outside to smoke. Luiz was in a video call with another friend and rotated his phone to show the surroundings to the friend. A male and a female were walking by and believed they were being filmed. According to the witness, the male then walked up to Luiz and said, "you will either stop filming, or I'll kill you, faggot"; to this Luiz replied "Faggot, why?" before being beaten.
Luiz's friend and other men managed to break up the fight. Luiz then asked his friend to find his lost mobile phone. While she was away, the attacker returned with 12 others and beat Luiz to death. The beating took place over 15 minutes and 250 metres.
According to the investigation, after the killing the suspects have re-united twice more that night to discuss the incident. Presumably, in the second re-union, after learning the victim died, they coordinated between themselves to destroy some of the evidence.
Investigation.
Two witnesses said that the group that killed Luiz was composed of Latin American or mixed-race men, between 20 and 30 years old.
Two men who helped to interrupt the initial fight are reported to be Ibrahima Shakur and Magatte, illegal immigrants from Senegal, who work as hawkers. The government considered regularising their legal situation in Spain as a reward for their actions. According to some reports the police also considers one of these men as a victim of the aggression, as he also was attacked during his intervention, and thus put his own life into danger.
Thirteen people were interviewed over the fatal beating. On 6 July, the police said that while they could not disregard any hypothetical motive, the initial evidence did not point to homophobia. According to investigators, the group of strangers would not have known that Luiz was gay. By the night of that same day, three people – two male and one female – were officially in custody. On 8 July the police confirmed an arrest of a fourth attacker, who allegedly also stole the victim's mobile phone after the attack. None of the arrested subjects has previous criminal records.
On 9 July, two more suspects were arrested, both underage, one of them having past criminal records. Three of four suspects arrested previously are ordered to stay in prison during pre-trial, without a release on bail option, while the other one (the woman) was released for the pre-trial period.
On 29 September, after about three months of investigation, a seventh suspect was arrested.
Suspects.
Authorities do not disclose the suspects' identities officially, beyond stating that all have Spanish nationality and are residents of A Coruña. The following information is known according to media sources. Overall, all suspects are deemed to have a known track record of previous street violence but managed to stay mostly under the police radar prior to the killing of Luiz.
Reaction.
Luiz's death was met by demonstrations in his memory in cities across Spain. In Madrid, police employed baton charges to break up demonstrations in the city centre; these actions were condemned by politicians including Mónica García and Pablo Echenique.
The President of Galicia, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, condemned the crime but said that he would not link it to homophobia until that had been established. The leader of the opposition, Ana Pontón, criticised this declaration. Luiz's father called for people not to politicise the crime.
Juan Carlos Monedero, a former leading member of Podemos, wrote on Twitter, "Let's see if anyone can explain to me what God were Vox and their supporters are praying to when they murder someone because of their hatred of homosexuals. Think about it [Tag] (José Luis Martínez-Almeida, mayor of Madrid), if you had put up the LGBTI flag on the city hall, the murder of Samuel would have been a bit more difficult." Vox announced that they would sue him for defamation, and Almeida condemned the insinuation against himself. Vox also announced plans to sue the political pundit Martu Garrote for having written "You spend all your life raising a son, ensuring his dream and, when you are happy because he is a nursing assistant, because he is a good person, because the worst has already happened, a pack of hyenas come and kill him because he doesn't live and love according to dogma. That is Vox, that is the far right".
The killing and the subsequent protests made international headlines in Europe and America and many international artists such as Sam Smith, Beyoncé, Ricky Martin and Lena Headey shared the news on their social media.
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