supporters of chávez have alleged that the opposition conspired to cause casualties during the incident with chávez allies such as jorge garcía carneiro and lucas rincón romero claiming that cnn correspondent otto neustald said that on the morning of 11 april he recorded a video message from a number of high-ranking military officers, led by vice admiral héctor ramírez, which was broadcast later in the day. the message responsabilized chávez of massacring innocent people using snipers, referring to at least six dead and dozens wounded. according to neustald, the message was recorded at least two hours before the killings started. however, this claim has never been proven and is contested by the rest of the reporters present, such as javier ignacio mayorca, mayela león and adrián criscaut, who affirmed that the military officers were informed of the death of tortoza during the filming of the message. the chavista gunmen that were seen shooting off the bridge argue that they were, in fact, returning fire at unknown snipers and metropolitan police firing towards them. there are reports that claim seven were arrested at the hotel ausonia and that they were later freed in the chaos of the coup while there was also empty shells found at the hotel edén. according to chávez supporter gregory wilpert, video and audio recordings were allegedly provided at the trial of metropolitan police leaders which suggested plainclothes police had infiltrated the la nacional building and were allegedly sniping on the opposition marchers and police below. the la nacional building housed the offices of pro-chávez mayor freddy bernal. bernal, a chávez supporter and former leader of an elite police force, was accused by a venezuelan military officer of complying with orders from the defense ministry to shoot opposition demonstrators. it was also reported that the national guard, which was firing tear gas and combatting the opposition protesters, did not pay any attention to the gunmen on the la nacional building and that it was the metropolitan police who had attempted to go to the building. bernal dismissed the allegations as "totally false".