As reported yesterday afternoon, police tracked down the three suspects in the early morning murder of American tourist – named in Correio da Manhã this morning as 35-year-old Daniel Kin. In doing so, one is being charged with murder, the two others with being accomplices in the attack which also left Kin’s 34-year-old male partner seriously injured, and requiring treatment still ongoing in hospital.
The 23-year-old suspect facing the charge of murder – and another of attempted murder – is being presented before a magistrate for initial questioning today. It is more than likely that he will be remanded in custody.
The young man is described by Correio da Manhã as “working in a bar close to the area” where the murder took place, and “drunk” at the time of the attack. He does not apparently have a police record.
This terrible story of ‘a regular couple on holiday in a well-known resort close to the capital’ is even more disturbing for the fact that violent crime is now a constant in national papers, particularly in metropolitan areas.
At roughly the same time that the American tourists were being attacked, a 16-year-old in Barreiro was fatally shot in the neck, again after a night out in a nearby bar. Investigators are said to be treating this incident as a form of ‘assassination/ settling of scores’.
Also on Monday, the body of a 26-year-old Irish man was discovered, “prostrate on the ground” in Rua Costa Pimenta, Casal Ventoso (an area known for drug trafficking/ taking). Today, he has been identified as himself a ‘drug addict’, and it is very possible that the head wound he sustained was incidental and not as a result of any kind of intentional blow.
Not so injuries sustained by three further young men, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, and later in the day: a 24-year-old was shot in the chest in Cova da Moura (Amadora) in the early hours, and rushed to hospital where he underwent emergency surgery. No news for now on the author of the shots, nor the motive.
Later, between 11.20pm and 11.50pm, two further young men were shot, one in the chest, the other in the legs and one arm – again in Amadora. In fact, one of the victims was shot in the same neighbourhood of Cova da Moura as the young man hours earlier – and, according to reports, he “did not tell police”. The victim checked himself into Amadora-Sintra hospital. PJ police are now investigating.
Clearly, the Amadora shootings could be ‘gang related’, while the death of the American tourist and the serious wounding of his lover would appear to be more along the lines of a ‘homophobic attack’. Daniel Kin’s partner, for example, was wearing a watch worth €15,000, explains Correio da Manhã, and a gold bracelet, worth €7,000 – and neither was taken. But, taken in the context that incidents of violence are now so regularly reported that it is difficult to keep up with them all, the area of Greater Lisbon is not looking like one in which people can feel ‘safe on the streets at night’. Mayor Carlos Moedas has frequently raised this topic, particularly this year, appealing for more police on the streets.
Sources: LUSA/ Correio da Manhã
