The police profession has its risks, but it is always ensured that no one gets hurt in a performance. On July 18, 2020, four mossos d’esquadra were injured when being attacked with a katana by a mental patient whom they had to accompany, with the help of a health team, to be admitted to the psychiatric unit of a hospital, as a doctor had recommended at the father’s request. What should have been a formality turned into a brutal attack. The Court of Barcelona has sentenced Antonio ES for four counts of attempted murder to a total of nine years in prison and up to a maximum of another nine years of internment in a psychiatric hospital, in addition to paying compensation to the victims that exceed 500,000 euros.
The Mossos and a team from the medical emergency service arrived around 7:40 p.m. to the house in the town of Moià (Moianès) where Antonio lived ES According to the video of the police action, to which EL PERIÓDICO has had access, the agents entered the house and went upstairs, accompanied by the defendant’s father. He, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and had stopped taking his medication, was locked in his room.
“Hello Antonio,” says one of the agents. “Sit here,” they tell him. He follows this prompt without getting flustered. He can only be heard saying, “I haven’t done anything.” The cops try to explain the situation: “We have come because we are suffering, because since you were locked up in your room, and because we thought that something had happened to you because you had not taken your medication. As you did not take the pill, we should go to the hospital and have them regulate you. will you accompany, eh? Right?”. Antonio, according to the sentence, pretended that he agreed to be taken to the hospital. Entering the room again, he drew from one side of the bed a large sword, katana type, and attacked the agents who were at the door. From there, in the video a loud noise is heard and a policeman shouts: “Taser-taser”, the electroshock weapon that interferes with the muscular nervous system and immobilizes it. “I can’t,” replies one of the policemen.
“God, the hand. Medical attention now”
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Enraged, Antonio leaves the compartment with the katana in his hand, raised, dealing blows from all sides. After a few seconds a shot is heard. one of the mossos used his service weapon to stop his action “which entailed a serious risk to the lives of the other three agents”, underlines the sentence. One of the projectiles hit the defendant’s right hand, causing him to drop the katana. “God, the hand”, shouts one of the Mossos. “Medical attention, now,” he insists. One of the agents had to have four fingers totally or partially amputated one hand and can no longer act as a police officer, while the rest suffered injuries to their arms. One of the Mossos affected has been represented by the lawyer Valentina Mazzoni.
The court of the Sixth Section of the Barcelona Court has applied to Antonio ES the incomplete defense of mental disturbance and has reduced the sentence that should have been set for four crimes of attempted murder. The magistrates report that the defendant suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and that he had already been hospitalized involuntarily. One of the experts detailed in the trial that as a consequence of the confinement due to covid in 2020, the accused isolated himself, increased his alcohol consumption and had stopped taking the prescribed medication, which had caused verbal aggressiveness towards his family. . In addition, according to the expert, he acted convinced that there was a plot against him by the police and that an ‘alien’ had settled inside to give you orders.