The Centre Irídia, which is defending Roger Español, the voter who was shot in the eye by a rubber bullet during the 2017 Catalan referendum, has announced this morning that they've identified the Spanish police officer who fired the shot. They have passed the information on to the judge in charge of investigating the case.
The red arrow marks the officer who allegedly shot Español leading to him losing sight in one eye
"They've tried to make sure we never found out who it was, but after a lot of collective work we've managed it", the centre said in a tweet this morning. In a press conference, lawyer Anaïs Franquesa explained they'd managed to identify the officer involved using images of the moment when the shot was taken, thanks to the clothing they were wearing and by discarding details of the others involved in the operation outside Ramon Llull school.
ATENCIÓN‼️Hemos logrado identificar al agente de la Policía Nacional que disparó a Roger Español #1-O
— IRIDIA (@centre_IRIDIA) 19 de juny de 2019
➡️ Han intentado que nunca supiéramos quién era, pero después de mucho trabajo colectivo lo hemos conseguido #ProuImpunitat pic.twitter.com/mvrrlT37GM
The lawyer said it's taken a year of hard work analysing all the images they could find of the fateful day to manage to identify the officer. She announced the fact riot officers are not more clearly identified.
Until the end
When it was his turn to speak, Roger Español expressed his determination to see the process through to the end to get compensation for his injury.
Roger Español: “Volem remarcar la nostra determinació en portar fins al final aquest procés judicial per la restitució i reparació d’una molt petita part del dany causat per l’operatiu de l’1 d’octubre” #ProuImpunitat pic.twitter.com/ohKjGUf4uX
— IRIDIA (@centre_IRIDIA) 19 de juny de 2019
Irídia called on the court to also summons under investigation one of the senior officers in the group present that day who they accuse of having shot two later rubber bullets towards the area where Español had fallen to the ground and was being helped by journalists.
During the investigation, the officers who took part in the operation on 1st October 2017 questioned whether Español's injury really was caused by a rubber bullet. The eleven firearms officers and two commanders testified to the investigation in November last year. They all denied responsibility for firing the shots in question, indeed, they denied even having seen anyone injured.
One of those who denied having fired the shot which hit Español is the officer identified today, who that day was standing on the opposite pavement from where the voter was injured.