Manuel Salvador Ibarra Plaza (a spiritual leader) and Jaime Gutiérrez Ospino (a bus driver), were imprisoned for the alleged crime of homicide under willful misconduct with a serie of similar crimes. The facts occurred last weekend in Fundacion (Magdalena) where 31 children died incinerated.
The defendants appeared before the Sixth Criminal Municipal Judge of Santa Marta with supervisory functions but they did not accept the charges brought by the Prosecutor delegated at the reaction unit URI * who knew about the case.
The events occurred on May 19 in Altamira neighborhood at Magdalena region, at approximately 12: 30 noon when children between 3 and 12 years old were being transported to their homes after taking part of some recreation activities carried out by the Christian church where they belonged.
The Criminal Investigation Team from Magdalena, with support of SIJIN authorities carried out the necessary actions to determine the causes of the accident. It could be established that Ibarra Plaza hired the vehicle to transport the children. However, according to the results of the technical examination made to the vehicle, it could be detected that it only was operating with gas because the fuel was difficult to obtain due to the vehicle poor conditions, so both the driver and the spiritual leader decided to install a handmade device to supply the gasoline .
This system consisted on placing a hose at the carburetor to supply gasoline to the vehicle. By using this method, the alleged responsible made three trips before the incident. The expert report indicates that apparently, the bus went off twice due to the lack of gasoline. The fuel spilt around the engine when they handled the device and caused a spark in the starter, causing fire and the subsequent death of the children.
While the injured children were looked after in hospital at Santa Marta (Magdalena), the bodies of the dead children were taken to the Legal Medicine Institute in Barranquilla (Atlantico). Actions are being carried out to establish their identity to hand over the corpses to their families.
The accused were taken to the district prison Rodrigo Bastidas in Santa Marta as ordered by the judge. For security reasons it is being considered their transfer.
*URI (Unidades de Reacción Inmediata) These units offer constant service to public making easier the access to law enforcement. The units give a timely answer to the community needs.