Police patrolman died after armed harassment in Norte de Santander

On Friday afternoon, armed harassment occurred in the municipality of La Playa de Belén (Norte de Santander), in eastern Colombia, where a patrol car was killed and an auxiliary of the Police was also injured.

The attack was perpetrated by two men with long weapons who were mobilizing on a motorcycle and who shot at the police station and some of the municipal mayor’s offices, as reported in the local digital media Wichos Informa.

The murdered patrolman was identified as Cristián Camilo Álvarez Ruíz and according to that media outlet, it was his first day of work in the north-eastern municipality of Santander since he had been transferred to that town the day before the attack.

Although the uniformed man was assisted by the community and transferred to the medical center of the municipality and then to that of Ocaña, he died due to the seriousness of his injuries, they reported in Semana magazine.

Meanwhile, the injured auxiliary was identified as Hugo Hernando Calderón Zabala, who was affected in one leg and one arm after the armed attack.

In the armed attack they were damaged by impacts of the bullets the official vehicle of the mayor La Playa de Belén, Íder Álvarez, the headquarters of the Victims Unit, the library and the planning office of the mayoralty of that municipality.

The commander of the Police in Norte de Santander, Colonel Carlos Martínez, reported in Semana that in that population security was reinforced after the armed attack.

“In the municipality there is the district commander with support personnel at the forefront of the situation. Public order has been restored in the municipality ”, he pointed.

The officer too He sent condolences to the family of the murdered patrolman and promised to find those responsible of armed harassment.

“We will do justice and bring the criminals who caused this event to the authorities. We will continue in the tireless fight against drug trafficking, which is the fuel for all the ills of this department and the country,” added the official in Semana.

In this area of ​​the department, the Eln, dissidents of the extinct FARC guerrilla and incursions by the Gulf Clan have been denounced who seek to dominate the drug trafficking routes to Venezuela.

This attack against the department’s police officers, reported in Semana, It happened 24 hours after the Hacarí police station was attacked, at which an explosive device was thrown to the rear of the building, however, there were no injuries due to this fact.

The Alert Santanderes station recalled that In Norte de Santander there are three policemen killed in the last two weeks, including the patrol car killed in La Playa de Belén. While two other uniformed men were killed in Tibú last week.

The victims were the patrolmen Deiby Fabián Mora Araque and Edwar Leonardo Torres Caicedo, who were carrying out intelligence work in the park of that municipality, when they were attacked by armed men. Captain Carlos Eduardo Vanegas Gonzáles was also injured in the incident.

Due to this violent act, the director of the National Police, General Jorge Luis Vargas, spoke: “It hurts us all. Again we are in mourning in Tibú where two fellow police officers were viciously murdered who were fulfilling their constitutional duty. Rest in peace. Heartfelt message of condolences to their families”.

The high official also offered a reward for information that allows finding those responsible of the homicide of the two uniformed men in that municipality.

“The National Police offers up to 100 million pesos in reward, for information that allows us to capture those responsible, similarly, in other areas of the country, the Gulf Clan and organized common crime have attacked Colombian police; I invite Colombians to help us and provide us with information to find those responsible,” General Vargas announced.