Samuel Luiz Muñiz: What is known about the death of the young man in a probable case of hate crime

It was a fatal beating and perhaps a hate crime as well

The Spanish police investigated the death of Samuel Luiz Muñiz, 24, early Saturday morning, caused by the beatings he received from several assailants near a nightclub.

Although the motive for the crime is being investigated and there are still no detainees, the complaints from witnesses to the fact make the LGTB collective assume that it is a hate crime and that Samuel was attacked for being homosexual.

Spanish media report that witnesses to what happened say that the young man “was killed shouting ‘fag*t'”.

For this reason, on Monday afternoon, there were demonstrations in several cities of the country in which calls for justice and the fight against homophobia prevailed.

“They killed Samuel for being a fagot”, was one of the slogans of those protests over the death of the young nurse in the city of La Coruña, in the northwest of Spain.

In that city, a group of friends of the victim, very affected, displayed banners that read “His love did not hurt, your hatred did” or “Samu has not died, he has been murdered.”

At the protest rally in Madrid, the organizers read a statement in which they said: “Samuel was killed for being a g*y, we repeat it as many times as necessary.”

The president of the government, Pedro Sánchez, described the murder as “a savage and ruthless act.”

What is known

Samuel Luiz Muñiz was beaten near a nightclub in the early hours of Saturday in La Coruña.

According to some witnesses, quoted in local media, one of the assailants yelled “fag” at him, so one of the hypotheses of the investigation is that the attack was a hate crime.

The police are now seeking to clarify not only who the culprits were, but also what triggered the brutal beating.

According to what was published by local media, the event happened at 3:00 am (01:00 GMT) on Saturday in what was the second night of nightlife since the restrictions were lifted due to the pandemic in the Galicia region.

Samuel was with a friend outside a nightclub and apparently a video call was the trigger for the attack.

His friend Lina, who claimed to be with Samuel at the time of the attack, explained what happened.

While they were making the video call, a couple passed by and the boy asked not to be recorded, Lina said, according to the local newspaper “La Voz de Galicia.”

“We tried to explain to him that he was confused, that we were making a video call and showing a friend where we were.”

According to Lina’s version, the boy went directly to Samuel and said: “Either stop recording or I’ll kill you, f*g.”

Lina went into the disco, where the rest of her friends were still, and when Samuel left, he was no longer there, but in a square a few meters further away, where the group beating took place.

When we got to the place, “I heard someone yell, you shit f*g,” Lina said.

Increase in hate crimes

There are still no detainees or an official version of what happened.

The La Coruña police are now working on analyzing the security cameras and interrogating the suspects and witnesses.

José Miñones, a government delegate in the Galicia region, where La Coruña is located, said that homophobia is one of the hypotheses open in the investigation.

“But none of the avenues is ruled out in this first phase of the investigations,” pending what is determined by the court that is instructing the case, he added.

“After taking statements from all the witnesses, we will know if it is a homophobic crime or not,” said Miñones.

“No hypothesis is excluded, neither the hate crime nor any other,” said the Spanish Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska.

The shouts of “f*g” during the attack pointed out by Lina, and the fact that other friends of Samuel assume that the sexual condition of the young man had a role in the attack have aroused rejection and condemnation, especially from the LGBT community.

According to data from the Ministry of the Interior, in 2019 there were 278 hate crimes related to sexual orientation or gender identity in Spain, representing an increase of 8.6% over the previous year.

That fear of the increase in aggressions was also behind the protests on Monday, largely carried out by the homosexual community.

“We will not take a step back in rights and freedoms. Spain is not going to tolerate it”, wrote on Twitter the president of the government, Pedro Sanchez.