SANTIAGO – A 30-year-old Colombian was arrested on Tuesday for the killing of at least seven people in one week in the Meiggs neighborhood in Santiago. Five of his victims were homeless people, who were stabbed to death. While arresting the suspect police found weapons that serve as possible evidence.
Special police forces arrested on Tuesday a 30-year-old man, suspected of killing at least seven people in one week. Five killings were committed in one day. Five of his victims were homeless people. Apart from the seven murders, all committed in the first week of November, the suspect is tied to a murder that took place in March.
Most killings took place in the Meiggs neighborhood in the center of Santiago. Two murders took place on Nov. 1, one on Nov. 7 and five the following day. The suspect allegedly struck during the night or in the early morning and victims were often stabbed to death and found hours later, when the perpetrator had long disappeared.
During his arrest, clothes and knives were found that according to police connect the suspect to the crimes. The suspect is a Colombian citizen, who arrived in Chile in 2013 as a tourist. He was not able to regularize his immigration situation due to his criminal record. However, he was not deported, even though illegal immigrants with criminal records usually are.
Police general Mario Rozas said the arrest could be made with the help of surveillance footage from cameras in the city center. A prosecutor said that during several murders, the suspect did not interact with his victims. “Many of them were sleeping when he stabbed them without provocation,” she was quoted as saying by local media. The suspect has remained silent so far.
Editor-In-Chief Boris van der Spek is the founder of Chile Today.