The violent sequence, recorded by the subway security cameras, indicates that he did not choose the victims at random, that there was an intention to choose only women. One after the other until reaching ten, maybe more. For this reason, on Friday night the Mossos organized a special operation to arrest the man who in the morning attacked several women by surprise on the platform of the Camp de l'Arpa metro station, in Barcelona. The Central Hate Crimes Unit has taken charge of the investigation of the case and the Mossos yesterday called on citizens for all women who were attacked by the individual to go to any police station and file a complaint.
The detainee is a thirty-year-old man with five previous convictions for crimes of theft and robbery with violence. Last Friday, this individual simply attacked half a dozen women waiting for the subway. One of them has already reported the events, which were recorded by the subway security cameras and which went viral within a few hours. The brutality of the attack, especially on the last woman, who was simply in the middle of the platform waiting and whom the detainee attacks with his arm, with such force that the victim falls to the ground collapsed, is terrifying. The events occurred around ten in the morning. After hitting several women, finally and with the help of citizens who were also at the station and witnessed the brutality of the attacks, the security guards detained the attacker. The same security guards alerted the Mossos, who went to this station on line 5. At that moment, the agents saw that there was only one victim with injuries that seemed minor at the time and since the aggressor had a known address, they decided to release him.
Later, when the videos from the subway security cameras went viral, the Mossos reviewed the images and confirmed that there were more victims and that they could even exceed ten. The consequences of the beatings also worsened. The last woman to be beaten has a perforated eardrum. At that moment the case is investigated as a possible hate crime due to sexism. That same Friday night, the agents organized a device to locate the aggressor, who was arrested around midnight. The man was scheduled to appear in court yesterday.
The violent scenes that occurred on Friday morning on the Camp de l'Arpa platform and recorded by the security cameras, yesterday provoked numerous reactions of condemnation, such as that of the Minister of Equality and Feminisms, Tània Verge, who also urged all victims to report. The first deputy mayor of Barcelona and president of Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB), Laia Bonet, described the “indiscriminate attack against various women” as “very serious” and expressed the City Council's support for the victims.
On behalf of ERC, Barcelona councilor Elisenda Alamany celebrated that the Mossos had arrested the aggressor and expressed support for the victims. The former JxCat deputy, Cristina Casol, who was recently expelled from the parliamentary group after reporting having been a victim of “gender-based harassment,” also condemned the “brutal” assault and added that “physical violence is the easiest to identify.” as sexist violence.”
