A judge from the Bayamón Court found cause for the arrest of two men in relation to the shooting that left two police officers wounded in Toa Baja.
The accused were identified as Jexziel Rivera Pirela Y Jean Castro Perezwho were subjected yesterday to a confrontation wheel at the Bayamón Command before the accusation.
Judge Catherine Brunelle Curet set bail for each of the defendants at $485,000, for a total of $970,000. By not lending them, both were admitted to prison until the preliminary hearing, scheduled for August 17.
Prosecutors Isaías Ojeda and Gustavo Vélez filed ten criminal charges against each of the defendants.
The complaints include two counts of attempted murder, one count of aggravated harm. The other seven charges allege gun law violations of possessing and using semi-automatic assault weapons, carrying weapons without a license, firing and pointing a firearm, and shooting from a vehicle.
Agents Alfredo González and Carlos Cotto Marrero, attached to the Intelligence Division of the Bayamón police region, were injured in the incident.
The events were recorded on the PR-167 highway, in Bayamón, on the morning of last Wednesday. According to the information provided by the Police, both agents responded to an alert from a vehicle that had been involved in a shootout on the PR-2 highway, where a man was injured in the leg.
As González and Cotto Marrero were near the area, they responded to the call and observed the vehicle, so they proceeded to follow up and order a stop. At that moment the shooting arose in which the agents were injured.
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The officers were treated at nearby hospitals. Each one suffered a bullet wound in one of their arms. His condition was described as stable.
According to information in the complaint, “the defendants in this case, on purpose, with criminal intent and total disregard for life, using firearms for which they do not have weapons licenses, shot two Agents of the Police Bureau of Puerto Rico who were working, after following up on them for having attempted against the life of a citizen on highway #2 in front of the entrance to the Estancias de la Fuente Urbanization in the municipality of Toa Baja.”
“Three firearms, ammunition of different calibers and multiple chargers were seized,” he added.
After a search by dozens of officers through wooded areas surrounding the scene, Rivera Pirela and Castro Pérez were arrested.
Police have indicated that a third party is still wanted by authorities.