A Reus judge has left two Mossos d'Esquadra agents who on December 14, 2021, one step away from trial, had the difficult task of neutralizing a gunman in Tarragona. In a car advanced by Cadena SER and to which La Vanguardia has also had access, the instructor considers that his performance was disproportionate.
Marin Eugen Sabau showed up at 11:17 in the morning at his former workplace, the offices of the company Securitas Direct. He pulled out a gun and shot at several workers, leaving three people shot. He then fled with his vehicle until a patrol stopped him at a roundabout on the T-11 highway, in Tarragona. When the officers ordered him to stop, he responded by opening fire and wounded one of the police officers in the arm.
However, the action for which two agents have now been prosecuted occurred later. Fleeing aboard his Citroën Xsara, Sabau barricaded himself in an isolated farmhouse in Riudoms. The Mossos mobilized the negotiating unit and the Special Intervention Group (GEI). The gunman remained sheltered behind a stone wall armed with three pistols, a rifle and plenty of ammunition. When the agents stood about 20 meters away from him and identified themselves as police officers, Sabau turned and shot twice.
It was then that one of the police fired a total of 17 shots to neutralize him. The judge assures that this action “exceeded the purpose of neutralization” and involved “absolute disregard” for the physical integrity of Sabau, whom, according to the order, “he shot indiscriminately.”
The gunman was neutralized and taken to the hospital alive, although he suffered spinal injuries that led to a total loss of mobility. In June 2022, he requested euthanasia, a procedure that was granted and applied two months later, in August of that same year.
Before starting that morning of violence, the aggressor sent a letter to several of his former bosses warning them of what he was going to do. "I will face all those who want to harm me. Whoever is looking for me will find me. If the police corner me and I have hostages, things will end badly for them. The police will be responsible. I am 100% sure that they will not catch me alive. I will shoot myself in the head before the authorities catch me. Don't let the police or the Mossos d'Esquadra say that they killed me, because it will be a lie. I know they like to wear medals."
The Reus court prosecutes two GEI agents while shelving the procedure against eight other police officers who also participated in the operation to neutralize the gunman. However, the magistrate highlights that Sabau “shot five times, of which only one, or at most two, were directed at the agents,” including one of those now prosecuted. He responded “with a number of shots that, at least eight times, exceeded those fired by the target,” the judge underlines in his resolution.
And he concludes that "the Grup Especial d'Intervenció (GEI) constitutes the elite unit of the Mossos d'Esquadra corps and, as such, has the function of carrying out high-risk operations. Among them, the neutralization of armed criminals, for which its members are extensively trained and prepared. They are therefore presumed to have the ability to confront situations such as the one at hand, causing the least harmful result possible." “Based on this premise and the evidence available, with special mention to the high difference between the bullets fired by Mr. Sabau and those fired by the GEI troops, we consider, always with the cautions inherent to this procedural phase, that the action carried out by the two agents was disproportionate,” he underlines.
The lawyer of the two prosecuted agents, José Antonio Bitos, explained in statements to La Vanguardia that "the agents of the GEI [Grup Especial d'Intervenció] are disappointed with this indictment, but they have full confidence that the Provincial Court of Tarragona will revoke it and carry out an objective analysis of the facts." "Mr. Sabau opened fire five or six times against the GEI agents after they tried to mediate him to stop his actions. Even so, he did not do so. He equipped himself with various long and short weapons and a large amount of ammunition to open fire on the agents and end their lives," he adds. “The performance of the GEI was impeccable, it was unbeatable and they would repeat it again in the same or identical case because none of the shots fired by the GEI agents hit vital areas of the body.”
