Killing of Samuel Luiz

Samuel Luiz Muñiz, a 24-year-old nursing assistant, was beaten to death in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain, on 3 July 2021. According to several witnesses, including the victim's friends, the crime was motivated by homophobia,[1][2] which led to country-wide demonstrations in his memory, and in defence of LGBT community.[3][4] Following the initial investigation, the police initially disagreed that homophobia was a motive, on the basis of the suspects' claims to have been unaware of the victim's sexuality.[1][5][6] However, later, during prosecution, the state prosecutor emphasised this discrimination against Samuel, as well as the extreme dehumanisation he faced regarding his sexual orientation.[7] As of 5 October 2021, seven people have been arrested for his death, one of them was released until the trial.[8][9][10]

Killing of Samuel Luiz
Demonstration in memory of Samuel Luiz in A Coruña
Date3 July 2021
LocationA Coruña, Spain

Victim

Luiz was born in Brazil and moved to Spain at the age of one.[11] His mother was Spanish, and the family lived in Culleredo and later Arteixo, both in the vicinity of A Coruña.[12] From the ages of 18 to 20 he studied to be a nursing assistant and worked as one in a nursing home while studying a further course to be a dental prosthetist.[12] He played the flute in an Evangelical Christian congregation and did not disclose his homosexuality to his father, who was also of that faith.[12] In a television interview, Luiz's father said that he had only spoken once to his son about the possibility that he was gay, but the young man did not want to continue the conversation.[12]

Crime
Street map of the crime scene. The red point on the left is the starting site of the crime, the red point on the right is where Luiz was killed.

According to Luiz's female friend who witnessed the crime, they were on a night out and stepped outside to smoke. Luiz was in a video call with another friend and rotated his phone to show the surroundings to the friend. A male and a female were walking by and believed they were being filmed. According to the witness, the male then walked up to Luiz and said, "you will either stop filming, or I'll kill you, faggot"; to this Luiz replied "Faggot, why?" before being beaten.[13][nb 1] Luiz's friend and other men managed to break up the fight. Luiz then asked his friend to find his lost mobile phone. While she was away, the attacker returned with 12 others and beat Luiz to death.[13] The beating took place over 15 minutes and 250 metres.[14]

According to the investigation, after the killing the suspects have re-united twice more that night to discuss the incident. Presumably, in the second re-union, after learning the victim died, they coordinated between themselves to destroy some of the evidence.[15]

Investigation

Two witnesses said that the group that killed Luiz was composed of Latin American or mixed-race men, between 20 and 30 years old.[16][17][18][19]

Two men who helped to interrupt the initial fight are reported to be Ibrahima Shakur and Magatte, illegal immigrants from Senegal, who work as hawkers. The government considers regularising their legal situation in Spain as a reward for their actions.[20][21][22] According to some reports the police also considers one of these men as a victim of the aggression, as he also was attacked during his intervention, and thus put his own life into danger.[23]

Thirteen people were interviewed over the fatal beating.[24] On 6 July, the police said that while they could not disregard any hypothetical motive, the initial evidence did not point to homophobia.[1][6] According to investigators, the group of strangers would not have known that Luiz was gay.[1][2] By the night of that same day, three people – two male and one female – were officially in custody.[25] On 8 July the police confirmed an arrest of a fourth attacker, who allegedly also stole the victim's mobile phone after the attack.[26][19] None of the arrested subjects has previous criminal records.[19]

On 9 July, two more suspects were arrested, both underage, one of them having past criminal records.[9] Three of four suspects arrested previously are ordered to stay in prison during pre-trial, without a release on bail option, while the other one (the woman) was released for the pre-trial period.[9]

On 29 September, after about three months of investigation, a seventh suspect was arrested.[10][27]

Suspects

Authorities do not disclose the suspects' identities officially, beyond stating that all have Spanish nationality and are residents of A Coruña.[9][28] The following information is known according to media sources. Overall, all suspects are deemed to have a known track record of previous street violence but managed to stay mostly under the police radar prior to the killing of Luiz.

  • Diego (25 years old, male). The primary suspect, who started the aggression. Worked as a waiter, and occasionally as an unskilled worker in the port. Shortly before the killing, he had been kicked out of a pub due to aggressive behavior and argument with his girlfriend Katy.[29][30][31]
  • Katy (23 years old, female). The girlfriend of Diego. Studied to become a hairdresser, but quit. A known brawler and haughty person, who was a part of many previous conflicts, according to sources.[29][31]
  • Kaio (19 years old, male). One of the most violent among arrested suspects, who started the aggression alongside Diego. A Spanish-born male from a Brazilian upper-middle class family, who lived in Brazil for some periods of his life.[29][30] He lived in A Coruña for the last two years, and worked as a waiter.[29] Allegedly he was often a participant in street fights, and allegedly he was involved into another street fight the next day after killing Luiz.[30] According to sources, unlike other arrested suspects he demonstrated a haughty and even defiant attitude the first days under arrest.[31]
  • Álvaro F. (20 years old, male), aka Yumba (or "El Llumba"). Reported to be a 3rd generation offspring of a rich coruñese family, drug addict from a young age, and an overall difficult child.[32] He worked in the port, and according to media sources a close friend to the circles of the far-left football hooligan crew Riazor Blues, although not a member of the crew.[29][33][30] In their Twitter account, Riazor Blues denied any links with the suspect and condemned the crime.[34]
  • "M." (16 years old, male). Spanish, born in Madrid, and moved to A Coruña shortly before the COVID pandemic. Often a participant in street conflicts.[29]
  • "D. R." (17 years old, male). A person without an occupation (neither studied nor worked as of recently).[29]
  • Alejandro M. (male).[10]

Reaction
A protester in the Puerta del Sol, Madrid, blaming the crime on Vox. Vox has sued public figures who linked the party to the crime.[35]

Luiz's death was met by demonstrations in his memory in cities across Spain.[3][4] In Madrid, police employed baton charges to break up demonstrations in the city centre; these actions were condemned by politicians including Mónica García and Pablo Echenique.[36]

The President of Galicia, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, condemned the crime but said that he would not link it to homophobia until that had been established.[37] The leader of the opposition, Ana Pontón, criticised this declaration.[38] Luiz's father called for people not to politicise the crime.[39][40][41]

Juan Carlos Monedero, a former leading member of Podemos, wrote on Twitter, "Let's see if anyone can explain to me what God were Vox and their supporters are praying to when they murder someone because of their hatred of homosexuals. Think about it @AlmeidaPP_ (José Luis Martínez-Almeida, mayor of Madrid), if you had put up the LGBTI flag on the city hall, the murder of Samuel would have been a bit more difficult." Vox announced that they would sue him for defamation,[35] and Almeida condemned the insinuation against himself.[42] Vox also announced plans to sue the political pundit Martu Garrote for having written "You spend all your life raising a son, ensuring his dream and, when you are happy because he is a nursing assistant, because he is a good person, because the worst has already happened, a pack of hyenas come and kill him because he doesn't live and love according to dogma. That is Vox, that is the far right".[35]

The killing and the subsequent protests made international headlines in Europe and America[3][43][44][45][46][47] and many international artists such as Sam Smith, Beyoncé, Ricky Martin and Lena Headey shared the news on their social media.[48][49][50][51]

Notes
  1. The word allegedly used was "maricón", commonly used as a homophobic slur.

References
  1. "La Policía no descarta ninguna hipótesis sobre Samuel, pero los primeros indicios no apuntan a la homofobia" [Police do not disregard any hypothesis about Samuel, but the first indications do not point to homophobia]. The Huffington Post (in Spanish). 6 July 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  2. "Lina, la amiga que fue testigo de cómo mataban a Samuel: "Fue un crimen homófobo"". telecinco (in European Spanish). 2021-07-05. Retrieved 2021-07-10.
  3. Jones, Sam (6 July 2021). "Three arrested after gay man beaten to death in Galicia". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
  4. "Las manifestaciones que reclaman justicia para Samuel, en imágenes" [Demonstrations calling for justice for Samuel, in images]. Público (in Spanish). 5 July 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  5. "Todo lo que se sabe sobre el caso de Samuel Luiz: ¿homicidio o crimen homófobo?". El Confidencial. August 13, 2021.
  6. "Primeros indicios apuntan a que muerte de Samuel no fue una agresión homófoba" [First indications point to the death of Samuel as not being a homophobic attack] (in Spanish). EFE. 6 July 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  7. Pontevedra, S. R. (2023-10-02). "La Fiscalía pide un total de 121 años para los cinco mayores de edad implicados en el linchamiento de Samuel Luiz". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-10-02.
  8. "Los investigadores confían en finalizar en septiembre el análisis de los móviles en el crimen de Samuel Luiz". La Voz de Galicia. August 24, 2021.
  9. "La jueza envía a prisión a tres de los detenidos por la paliza mortal a Samuel Luiz". El Pais. 9 July 2021.
  10. "Las imágenes tratadas de las videocámaras cercaron al último detenido por el crimen de Samuel". ABC. October 5, 2021.
  11. "Assassinato de jovem gay brasileiro causa comoção na Espanha" [Murder of young Brazilian gay man causes commotion in Spain] (in Portuguese). G1. 5 July 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  12. Rey, Carlos (7 July 2021). "El sueño roto de Samuel Luiz: el joven auxiliar de enfermería que quería ser protésico dental" [The broken dream of Samuel Luiz: the young nursing assistant who wanted to be a dental prosthetist]. El Español (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 July 2021.
  13. "¿Qué se sabe del asesinato de Samuel, el joven de A Coruña que recibió una paliza mortal?" [What do we know about the murder of Samuel, the young man from A Coruña who received a fatal beating?] (in Spanish). Onda Cero. 5 July 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  14. Cedeira, Brais; Casal, Luis (6 July 2021). "Los asesinos de Samuel lo persiguieron 250 metros y le golpearon durante 15 minutos hasta matarlo" [Samuel's killers pursued him for 250 metres and beat him for 15 minutes until killing him]. El Español (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 July 2021.
  15. "Reconstrucción de la noche de los agresores de Samuel Luiz: discusiones ante desconocidos y reuniones de madrugada". El Diario. August 15, 2021.
  16. "Los dos testigos que reanimaron a Samuel: "Estaba en el suelo en coma, le hablábamos y le agarrábamos..."" [The two witnesses who revived Samuel: "He was on the floor in a coma, we were talking to him and we were holding him"] (in Spanish). Telecinco. 6 July 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  17. "Los testigos que intentaron reanimar a Samuel: "Era una pandilla de jóvenes, de 30 años máximo, latinos o mulatos"" [Witnesses who tried to revive Samuel: "It was a gang of young men, aged 30 at most, Latin American or mixed-race]. 20 minutos (in Spanish). 6 July 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  18. Paredes, Mónica (6 July 2021). "'El programa del verano' habla con los testigos que reanimaron a Samuel: "Estaba en coma"" ['El programa del verano' speaks with the witnesses who revived Samuel: "He was in a coma"]. La Vanguardia (in Spanish). Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  19. "Detienen a una cuarta persona por el crimen de Samuel Luiz en A Coruña". La Voz de Galicia. 8 July 2021.
  20. "Los agresores de Samuel golpearon también al senegalés que lo defendió". La Voz de Galicia. July 21, 2021.
  21. "Los principales implicados en el crimen de Samuel «xa están ante a Xustiza»". La Voz de Galicia. July 13, 2021.
  22. "Ibrahima Shakur, el inmigrante senegalés que no dudó en arriesgarlo todo para ayudar a Samuel". TeleCinco. July 9, 2021.
  23. "La Policía concluye que uno de los dos senegaleses que socorrieron a Samuel Luiz también es víctima de sus agresores". El Mundo. July 20, 2021.
  24. "La policía detiene a 13 personas por la muerte violenta del joven de 24 años en A Coruña" [Police detain 13 people for the violent death of a 24-year-old young man in A Coruña] (in Spanish). Onda Cero. 5 July 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  25. Carrero, Manu. "Tres detenidos, no se considera agresión homófoba... así avanza la investigación sobre el asesinato de Samuel" [Three arrests, not considered homophobic attack... how the investigation into the murder of Samuel is progressing]. 20 minutos (in Spanish). Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  26. "Cuatro detenidos en España por la muerte a golpes de un joven homosexual". El Comercio. 8 July 2021.
  27. "El juez envía a prisión al último detenido por el asesinato de Samuel". SER. September 29, 2021.
  28. "La investigación del caso Samuel Luiz continuará bajo secreto por decisión de la Audiencia Provincial". Huffington Post. July 21, 2021.
  29. "D., el presunto agresor principal de Samuel Luiz que estaba "cegado" por su novia". El Mundo. July 13, 2021.
  30. "Uno de los agresores de Samuel Luiz se metió en otra pelea al día siguiente". El Mundo. July 12, 2021.
  31. "Los tres jóvenes encarcelados por el crimen de Samuel, en celdas aisladas y sin salir al patio". La Voz de Galicia. July 20, 2021.
  32. "La historia de Álvaro, alias 'Yumba': de niño de familia bien a presunto asesino de Samuel Luiz". Ok Diario. July 16, 2021.
  33. "Yumba, el tercer detenido por el asesinato de Samuel, cercano a los Riazor Blues, intervino en la 2ª paliza". El Español. July 11, 2021.
  34. "Riazor Blues niega toda relación con 'Yumba', uno de los presuntos asesinos de Samuel Luiz". 20 minutos. July 11, 2021.
  35. Carrasco, Joel (5 July 2021). "Vox denuncia a Monedero por vincularlos con el asesinato homófobo de A Coruña" [Vox denounces Monedero for linking them with the homophobic murder in A Coruña]. El Nacional (in Spanish). Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  36. "Cargas policiales y un detenido en Madrid durante las manifestaciones por la muerte de Samuel" [Police charges and one arrested in Madrid during the demonstrations about the death of Samuel]. 20 minutos (in Spanish). 6 July 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  37. "Feijóo: No me atrevo a tipificar el asesinato de Samuel como homofobia" [Feijóo: I won't dare to describe the murder of Samuel as homophobia] (in Spanish). EFE. 6 July 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  38. Capeáns, Juan (6 July 2021). "Pontón cree que Feijoo [sic] es «equidistante» ante el crimen de Samuel" [Pontón believes that Feijóo is "sitting on the fence" about the Samuel crime]. La Voz de Galicia (in Spanish). Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  39. "El padre de Samuel pide evitar caer en "banderas y políticos" en las concentraciones por la muerte de su hijo" [Samuel's father asks for the demonstrations about the death of his son not to fall into "flags and politicians"] (in Spanish). Cadena SER. 5 July 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  40. "El padre de Samuel pide que no se le convierta en un símbolo político" [Samuel's father asks for him not to be turned into a political symbol]. El Correo (in Spanish). 5 July 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  41. Mahía, Alberto (5 July 2021). "El padre de Samuel: «No quiero que la muerte de mi hijo sea utilizada como bandera de nadie»" [Samuel's father: "I don't want the death of my son to be used as anybody's flag"]. La Voz de Galicia (in Spanish). Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  42. "Almeida responde al reproche en Twitter de Monedero: "Solo una mala persona puede banalizar un asesinato de odio"" [Almeida responds to Monedero's reproach on Twitter: "Only a bad person can trivialise a hate crime murder"] (in Spanish). Telecinco. 5 July 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  43. "Le meurtre d'un jeune homosexuel battu à mort secoue l'Espagne". Le Monde.fr (in French). 2021-07-05. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  44. "Spanien: Massenproteste nach mutmaßlich homophobem Hassverbrechen". Der Spiegel (in German). 6 July 2021. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  45. "Σοκ στην Ισπανία από ομοφοβικό έγκλημα-Χιλιάδες στους δρόμους ζητούν δικαιοσύνη". Η Εφημερίδα των Συντακτών (in Greek). Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  46. ""Ou paras de gravar ou mato-te, maricas!": Revolta após Samuel ser espancado até à morte". www.cmjornal.pt (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  47. "Spain: Police probe suspected hate crime targeting gay man". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  48. Miguel, Nerea San (2021-07-08). "Lena Heady, la actriz que interpreta a Cersei en 'Juego de Tronos' pide justicia por el asesinato de Samuel". Cadena SER (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  49. ""No regresará a casa con heridas. Está muerto": la reflexión de Sam Smith tras el asesinato de Samuel". EuropaFM (in Spanish). 2021-07-08. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  50. BeyGOOD (July 8, 2021). "Prayers for the family and friends of Samuel Luiz Muniz". Twitter. Retrieved September 24, 2021.
  51. julio, EFE7 de; 2021 - 10h56 (2021-07-07). "Ricky Martin condena el asesinato del joven gay español Samuel Luiz". El Universo (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-07-09.
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