Three police officers charged with the shooting death of a young man at his home in Vallecas

Three national police officers remain charged with the shooting death of a 21-year-old on the landing of his home in Vallecas, Madrid, on November 26. The officers have stated that the boy repeatedly attacked them with a knife and that they were forced to shoot at least 18 times to save his life. Kebyn's body registered six shots. The head of the Court of Instruction number 1 of Madrid, Pedro López Jiménez, took a statement from the three agents in December 2021. Since then he has maintained the status of being investigated for a crime of homicide.
Until now only the version that a police spokesman offered the day after the events had come to light: The mother had called alarmed by the threats to the rest of her middle son's family, handed over the keys to the agents on the street and the boy pounced on them when they entered the apartment. When the judge received the police report, he decided to open proceedings and summon two of the agents as under investigation. After taking their statements, he accused a third party that he had also fired. The family of Kebyn Brayan Asencio, of Dominican origin and Spanish nationality, believes that the police broke into his house shooting.
The situation that Kebyn's mother and another 30-year-old son described to the four police officers who appeared on San Claudio Street after half past nine at night convinced the agents that they should go up to the home with a protective shield . Kebyn had attacked his brother with a fist and threatened the family with a knife. He had been very upset for three days.
All four officers were wearing bulletproof vests. Three of them, those who could fit, took an elevator and accessed the house at the same moment, on the ninth floor of a ten-story building in the modest neighborhood of Palomeras, in one of the districts with the lowest income per capita and hope of life in the capital. The fourth policeman walked up three floors and took another elevator there.
From then on, only the version of the agents is known, later completed by the Samur troops and the reports of the Scientific Police and the forensic experts. According to the acting agents, Kebyn appeared in the room hiding a knife in his sleeve, with a lost look, before pouncing on them despite the warnings. He lunged again and again at the shield-bearing agent who offered himself first. The police say that he jumped and tried to stab them over the protection and from the sides. Kebyn was 170 centimeters tall and weighed 70 kilos.
In one of the attacks, the agent wearing the protection lost control of it. It was then, always according to the Police version, that Kebyn went to stab one of the agents who was on the floor of the stairwell landing, unprotected. This policeman says that Kebyn tried to stab him several times in the head, but that he moved away from him and the knife hit the wall. Which then he pulled out his gun and fired. Two other agents followed suit. By the time the room reached the ninth floor, Kebyn had already bent his knees from the gunshots from his companions.
Despite this, the agents' story continues, Kebyn would not let go of the knife, so they had to hit him "many times" with the defenses and even step on his hand. Still he kept stirring, they say. One of them got on top of him and shackled him. The testimony of one of the agents before the Homicide Group shows that it took "several minutes" to put the handcuffs on them because of the resistance he presented.
The provisional report of the forensic doctor assigned to the court concludes that there were no shots aimed at vital organs and that all of them were shot standing up, face to face, except for one, who was more inclined. But he adds: "Each of the shots, by themselves, probably would not have caused death, by causing minor bleeding that could, eventually, have allowed greater survival, and hospital surgical treatment."
When they turned him over, the police say they saw the bullet holes and tried to cover his wounds. The Samur arrived shortly and after 60 minutes of recovery maneuvers, the toilets certified the death of Kebyn Brayan Peralta Asencio, who had turned 21 six days earlier.
The alleged knife that Kebyn used against the policemen was found fractured on a shelf in the living room. The blade was separated from the handle and was found next to the access door to the house. One of the policemen assures that the knife was broken as a result of the impacts against the shield, more than fifteen. Another affirms that, despite the fact that the knife appeared without a handle, Kebyn Brayan stuck it "many times" against the wall in his attempt to hit the policeman who shot first in the head and that, after being shot seven times, he never released it. .
According to the report of the Scientific Police, the utensil had a blade 12.5 centimeters long and 2.3 cm wide. A table knife, the kind used to cut a steak on the plate, has slightly smaller dimensions, between 10 and 12 centimeters long and about 2 centimeters wide.
The Scientific Police report found no traces on the knife. The experts state: “In the case at hand and once the aforementioned conditions have been assessed and the pertinent tasks have been carried out, NO FOOTPRINTS HAVE BEEN REVEALED with a system of ridges considered to have quality in accordance with the Specific Procedure for Revealing Latent Prints in force, on the surfaces treated of the vestiges outlined in the present”. In the reports of the case there are no knife marks on the walls of the landing either.
The Científica agents, also belonging to the National Police Corps, describe in their ocular inspection report the state in which they found the shield used by the agents: “At the beginning of the second flight of stairs to the tenth floor, You can see a police shield made of plastic material in which traces of a brownish substance, apparently blood, can be seen on its inner face, in addition to various scratches on its outer face, with part of the lower left side incomplete. The policemen were recognized for minor injuries, which cost none of them discharged, such as bruises on the nose, on the legs or "a bump" on the head.
Agent 129,858 was initially summoned as a witness, but ended up charged in investigation proceedings 2121/2021 of Court number 1 of Madrid. He is the policeman who describes the stabbing attempts directed at his head, repeated "many times", on the landing of the stairs. In his first statement, he claims that he fired four shots. Before the judge he recognized at least nine.
The policeman with number 130,986 is the one who carries the shield. He claims that Kebyn dropped the knife but that he retrieved it and continued with the attempted assault on him. He is the one who speaks of at least 15 slashes on the shield. He admits to having fired eight times.
Three days after the events, the policemen write a first report that begins as follows: “There is no doubt that the beginning of the police intervention, which led to the fatal outcome for the victim Kebyn Brayan Peralta Asencio, occurs as a consequence of the calls for help that both her brother and her mother make to the emergency services, in order to request a police presence in view of the real fear that Kebyn Brayan would attack not only her brother, whom she had already assaulted before, as on this occasion to his own mother.
The fact that the six shots – according to this first report – hit four of them in the abdominal area and two in the arms “suggests that the acting agents tried by all possible means, not only to save his life and physical integrity , but also that of their peers”. He adds that his intention "at all times" was to "reduce the victim by shooting at less vital areas of the body." "All this with the sole intention of repelling the brutal attacks with the knife to which they were being subjected by Kebyn Brayan", he adds.
Regarding the alleged aggressive attitude of Kebyn once he was shot and handcuffed, the first doctor of the Samur declared that he was found at the "entrance of the home, face down and with his shackles on." This affirmation also contradicts the affirmations of the first information diligence, elaborated with the testimony of the agents, in which it is assured that the policemen acted "quickly to cover the victim's wounds, while they waited for the arrival of the Samur."
The doctor told the judge that Kebyn "was dressed", that he cut off his clothes to "check the wounds" and that he "asked the policeman to remove his shackles" so that he could turn him over. “He wasn't cooperative at first but he wasn't aggressive towards the declarer. The policeman had to help him turn it around because he wouldn't let himself, he resisted, he didn't cooperate. His partner did not take long to arrive, ”adds the first doctor in his statement before the judge.
The second doctor reached the ninth floor as Kebyn was being circled. "He was moving, a little restless, starting to lose consciousness," he relates. And he adds: “When he entered they were turning him around; Kevin was moving, making movements, like he wanted to touch himself, they were not aggressive movements”.
Despite the fact that the agents declare that they fired between the three of them between 18 and 19 times, the Scientific Police only found 15 shell casings, corresponding to as many shots. The agents of the Provincial Scientific Police Brigade found 4 shell casings and a cartridge already on the second flight of stairs that you have to climb to the ninth floor where Kebyn lived with his family. Already on the ninth floor, remains of the wall appear on the ground that the agents identify with “five bullet holes” next to some counters.
The agents entered the apartment with the keys that the victim's mother had given them, but a bullet hole still appears in the door, 60 centimeters high, and it is unknown when the bullet could have reached the place. In the living room of the house, on a wall, there are two other bullet holes, 20 centimeters high and one meter high. On another wall there is a third at 110 centimeters.
Kebyn's autopsy revealed the presence of marijuana, MDMA (ecstasy), diphenhydramine (a sedative substance that is used to combat insomnia but also recreationally), as well as sildenafil, with effects similar to Viagra. The reports do not determine the time that had passed since its consumption
Last May, the judge granted the experts a procedure requested by the Prosecutor's Office to determine if the substances that Kebyn had taken could influence his alleged "resistance to bullet impacts." The result of him has not yet reached the court. For their part, Brayan's family has asked the judge to demand from the Scientific Police a "detailed report on the trajectory of the shots", as well as to send the remains of the clothing to the Forensic Anatomical Institute to help them draw conclusions. more accurate.
The three accused policemen are defended by the lawyer of Jupol, the majority police union that comes from the Jusapol platform. His defense has requested that Kebyn's records be incorporated for acts committed when he was a minor, if he had a psychiatric record and the proceedings for an alleged robbery with intimidation committed in Leganés. The latter has been rejected by the magistrate for not being related to the case under investigation.