They are investigating whether those arrested for the shooting in Terrassa mistook the officers for a rival criminal group

TerrassaJust before the burst of gunfire begins, the two agents, who are not in uniform, repeatedly shout "Guardia Civil, Guardia Civil" with their guns in their hands. A few meters away, a man half-hidden behind some cars gesticulates intensely, at one point raising his hands. Suddenly, another one appears on the scene, coming out of a building and firing, without asking and practically at point-blank range, at one of the two agents, who also respond with shots. One police officer is left lying on the ground while the other, after walking a few meters, also falls. There, they beat him with a stick, on his head and body, while the first man, the one who was initially behind the cars, insists: "Show me your badge, show me your badge". The police officer takes something out of his pocket, which cannot be perceived from the angle of view of the neighbor who is recording it all, and the man ends up stopping his companions to prevent them from continuing to assault the agent.

All this happened this Thursday night in the Can Parellada neighborhood of Terrassa. The two agents were injured: one was hit by four bullets and the other by one. Both are hospitalized, although for now their lives are not in danger. One of the main police hypotheses, reinforced by this dialogue that can be heard in the video, is that the perpetrators of the shooting doubted that the two agents were actually police officers and were not sure if they were part of a rival criminal group. In fact, it is increasingly common for a criminal group to disguise themselves or pose as police –with fake badges, for example– to steal drugs from a rival clan or confront them.

"Tell mom to come down, we have to leave", says one of the members of the group shortly after the shots. Of those involved, three hid in a premises near the scene of the shooting, a bar that is in disuse. "I was having dinner quietly and suddenly I started hearing the shots. Shortly after, I saw how the police gathered at this premises and ended up knocking the door down", describes a neighbor who lives right above. The specialized intervention units of the Mossos d'Esquadra entered by force and arrested three men.

Family clans

According to initial investigations, they are three men linked to a family clan with roots in this neighborhood of Terrassa. They have records for crimes against property, and although it was initially said that they could be truck cargo thieves –thieves specialized in stealing truck cargo– ultimately everything points to them not being so. The fact that there are three detainees means that there is still one man left to locate, as well as other people who appear later on the scene and who could be collaborators.

Precisely because there are still individuals involved to be located, this Friday morning this neighborhood in the Vallesana city was completely cordoned off by public order agents of the Mossos and also by members of the Civil Guard. There were even effects on a nearby nursery school, which received a bullet impact in a window and which this Friday had to suspend the dining service because the police had to analyze this impact. This event, however, began much further away from there, on the AP-7.

Chase on the AP-7

The two officers were on duty when they detected a suspicious vehicle at the Porta de Barcelona. The police tried to identify the occupants of this car, but instead of braking, the driver tried to run them over. After following them, the officers located the car in the Can Parellada neighborhood. Around 10:30 PM, the shooting took place. Police sources point out that this neighborhood has become conflictive over time, precisely due to the establishment of these family clans often linked to the world of drugs or robberies.

The fact that these men responded with direct gunfire against the police is a line that has rarely been crossed in Catalonia and which worries police authorities. Sources consulted by ARA initially frame it within this upward trend in which criminal groups pose as police officers. It is very common in what are known as vuelcosor narco-assaults, that is, when one clan steals drugs from another. There are several examples that prove this, the first one very recent: two weeks ago, a group of fake police officers, disguised in National Police vests, kidnapped a man in the middle of the AP-7 and left him severely wounded a few kilometers away, in what is being investigated as a drug conflict.

In May, in Malgrat de Mar, the Local Police surprised a group of hooded individuals who, posing as officers, were attempting to steal 150 kilos of hashish from the people unloading it from a trailer. The same month, in this case in Tordera, a man was wounded in a shooting during a drug raid in which the assailants were dressed as police officers.

Behind the incident in Terrassa, however, there is also the proliferation of firearms among criminal groups. For some time, the Mossos have been warning of a possible mimicry in which local groups, until now less armed and with more resources, begin to copy the dynamics of the major drug cartels. According to initial police hypotheses, the Terrassa shooting largely demonstrates this thesis.