Two young men and a woman have been acquitted after spending months in pretrial detention following an alleged attempt to run over officers from the Investigative Police (PDI) in La Pintana. Joshua Carrasco, Ismael Bastías, and the mother of one of the men claim the May 2021 incident was a setup designed to justify the detectives' use of service weapons.
The incident occurred while the group was on their way to buy a Mother's Day gift. According to Joshua Carrasco, a pickup truck intercepted them, and a man jumped out of the vehicle and opened fire on their car.
“It was like an ambush; a truck cuts us off, and a man in a white t-shirt gets out from behind the driver and starts shooting,” Carrasco told Chilevisión. A bullet struck the young man's arm and pierced the driver-side door.
Following the attack, the group tried to flee but were intercepted by officers. Ismael Bastías recounted being tackled in the middle of the street without the officers identifying themselves: “He handcuffed me, and it was only then that I realized he was a cop. I told him, ‘Hey, you’ve got the wrong guy.’”
Irregularities in the chain of custody
The prosecution, led by prosecutor Renzo Razeto, initially maintained that the suspects attempted to ram the officers and that a passenger had pointed a firearm at them. However, the defense presented serious inconsistencies in the investigation.
Public defender María Paz Martínez denounced that the sub-inspector from the Macul Criminal Investigation Unit, who allegedly fired the shot, was the same person in charge of collecting and transporting the evidence. “In other words, the person who shot my client was the one in charge of the entire forensic process, which is completely lacking in transparency,” the lawyer stated.
The investigation revealed a lack of visual evidence, as one security camera in the area failed to record and another showed blurred images. Furthermore, anonymous witnesses indicated that the officers were in plainclothes, making it difficult to identify them as police.
The mother of one of the young men, Laura, also faced charges for drug trafficking and possession of ammunition. She claimed the seized marijuana was for medicinal use to treat chronic thrombosis and denied the presence of the bullets found in the vehicle.
After enduring a legal process that ended in their acquittal, the victims described the trauma of their imprisonment. Ismael Bastías described his time in prison as “hell,” while Joshua Carrasco recounted being physically assaulted while held in the Santiago 1 prison.
Although the court determined they were innocent, the three individuals stated they currently lack the financial resources to launch a civil lawsuit against the State.
