Detail. Thomas Peña Morel, alias “Tomasito,” the best friend of the boy’s father and whom the police credit with having orchestrated the plot, accompanied him on steps after the case.
Santiago, DR
A little less than 48 hours after the arrest of five individuals involved in the frustrated robbery attempt of a family in Santiago and the death of the tender boy Gioser Luis Feliz Camilo, the identity of the person who pulled the trigger has not yet been revealed.
And while on one side, the preparations march advances to take Gioser to his rest in burial on his native soil, New York, an almost anxious situation imprisons the Dominicans who, apart from their solidarity anguish, want to know the face of the thug.
Meanwhile, the marks of the criminals’ attacks are still visible.
The rear window on the driver’s left side still has the hole through which the bullet that cut short the life of 9-year-old Goiser Luis Feliz entered.
“They jumped on me; I thought it was a drunk who was going to crash into me and, later, they cut me off in front of me,” said José Luis Bautista, who was driving the SUV where the boy Luis Feliz died.
Still shocked, Bautista says it was almost noon, and he had already crossed the toll booth on the Circunvalación Norte highway when he was intercepted.
They shot the driver.
He narrates that the criminals fired the shot at him, but he hit the minor due to his driving speed.
They, referring to the assailants, “thought I was going to continue straight with them, but I turned where it couldn’t be turned,” Bautista explained.
time of attack
“I told them (those who were in the vehicle): ‘hold on’, and I doubled luck or truth, even if we rolled over or whatever,” he added.
José Luis, the brother-in-law of the deceased child’s father, indicated that the family came to Santiago to celebrate his sister’s birthday.
He also indicated that he only realized they were being followed at the moment of impact.
The best friend
One of the arrested, Thomas Peña Morel, alias “Tomasito,” is the best friend of the boy’s father and whom the authorities attribute to being the person who orchestrated the plot, located the victim, and maintained contact with the gunmen.
Peña accompanied Sergio Feliz, the child’s father, from the moment of the crime until removing the body from Inacif.
A source told Listín Diario that the father wanted to talk to the journalists, but the latter said it was better to remain silent.
The minor’s father told Listín Diario that Peña slept at his house on Thursday night and accompanied him to do all the errands, so he never imagined that his best friend was the one who coordinated the death of the son of him.
“My brother, I loved him like a brother; I felt bad because a person you trust; but there is a God up there,” he lamented.
The accused group
The police authorities have identified five other men who participated in the incident: Luis Ángel Vargas Brito, 18, Derlin Javier Mercado Martínez, César Junior Ulloa Cuevas, José Manuel Almonte Santana, 20, and Elián Martínez Sánchez, alias Odalis de 22; all natives of Santiago Oeste.
Listín Diario reporters spoke with relatives, who said they feared reprisals. Some have already left the sector.
Derlin Javier Mercado Martínez, one of those accused of being responsible for the death of little Goiser, has, according to those close to him, barely a month since he returned from the United States, where he had traveled illegally, through the so-called “Vuelta por Mexico.”
Through tears, Fausto Mercado, his father, declared: “I even sent him to New York, to see if he would get ahead, because he did not want to get ahead, and what he came was to make his toyo.”
Mercado agrees that the justice system takes charge of the case and “do the thing as it has to be done,” in addition to sending its condolences to the child’s family, and that “they make their decisions there.”
Mercado, an owner of a metal company in the Cienfuegos sector, had his son working in the family business. According to neighbors, he had generated projects to involve his son and get ahead.
“He even had a truck to work on, in which he could earn between 25 and 30 thousand pesos a month, without doing the wrong thing,” Mercado explains.
Visibly shocked by the chaos, the father said that his face is being seen on cameras, “but in a jail they will not even see me in a case.”
The rented car
“It is not easy to pay for something that you have not done. Sometimes, for working with dignity what you are looking for is a problem,” said the wife of the man who rented the vehicle in which the criminals traveled.
The woman, whose identity is being kept for security, explained that she and her husband have a car rental business, with three cars she owns.
