He meant to frighten her. The gun went off instead.
En un estacionamiento de Villa Luzuriaga, La Matanza, Rita Mabel Suárez murió de un disparo mientras su hijo estaba sentado a su lado, víctima de lo que tres adolescentes concibieron como un robo de rutina. Cuatro días después, el joven de 17 años que apretó el gatillo se entregó voluntariamente junto a su familia, alegando que el arma era prestada, que creía que estaba descargada y que el disparo fue accidental. El caso pone sobre la mesa una de las preguntas más antiguas de la justicia: cómo pesa la responsabilidad cuando quien causó la muerte sigue siendo, ante la ley y ante la vida, un niño.
- Una mujer de 47 años murió de un balazo frente a su hijo mientras tres menores intentaban robarle el auto en plena tarde.
- El adolescente que disparó huyó por los techos de su barrio cuando la policía llegó a su puerta esa misma noche, consciente de lo que había ocurrido.
- Cuatro días después, algo lo hizo cambiar de rumbo: se presentó en la fiscalía acompañado por toda su familia y confesó haber jalado el gatillo.
- Su cómplice de 16 años también se entregó pero guardó silencio, mientras que el tercer implicado, ya detenido, señaló al menor como el autor del disparo.
- Ahora una audiencia judicial decidirá si la confesión voluntaria y el alegato de accidente tienen peso suficiente para moldear el destino de un adolescente acusado de homicidio.
Rita Mabel Suárez tenía 47 años cuando murió de un disparo en un estacionamiento de Villa Luzuriaga, La Matanza, con su hijo sentado a su lado. Todo comenzó cuando tres adolescentes la vieron cerca de una esquina y decidieron robarle el auto. Al encontrar las puertas cerradas y las ventanas subidas, uno de ellos —17 años— sacó una pistola prestada con la que intentó intimidarla. Según su propio relato, golpeó el vidrio con el arma un par de veces y en uno de esos impactos el arma se disparó. Él asegura que creía que estaba descargada. Cuando escuchó el disparo, corrió.
Esa misma noche, investigadores de La Matanza llegaron a la casa de su familia en Rafael Castillo. El muchacho escapó por los techos del barrio. Pero algo cambió en él durante las horas siguientes. Cuatro días después del crimen, el lunes, se presentó voluntariamente en la fiscalía acompañado por sus padres, su hermana y su cuñado, y confesó ante el fiscal Pablo Insúa haber sido quien disparó.
Su cómplice de 16 años también se entregó ese mismo día, traído por su madre, aunque se negó a declarar. Un tercer implicado, de 19 años, había sido detenido en la escena del crimen y ya había señalado al menor de 17 como el autor del disparo.
El joven aguarda ahora en un centro de detención juvenil la audiencia que definirá su futuro. La fiscalía pedirá prisión preventiva. El hijo de Rita Mabel Suárez sobrevivió al ataque. Ella no. Y la pregunta que deberá responder el tribunal es tan vieja como la justicia misma: qué responsabilidad recae sobre quien causó una muerte siendo todavía un niño.
Rita Mabel Suárez was 47 years old when she died in a parking lot in Villa Luzuriaga, a neighborhood in La Matanza, shot once while sitting in her car with her son beside her. The shooting happened during what started as a routine robbery attempt by three teenagers who spotted her at an intersection and decided to take her vehicle. By Monday of the following week, one of those teenagers—17 years old—walked into a prosecutor's office with his parents, his sister, and his brother-in-law, and confessed to pulling the trigger.
The boy's account of what happened that Thursday afternoon is straightforward in its outline but tangled in its reasoning. He was walking with two accomplices, both minors he knew, when they noticed Suárez standing near a corner. The three decided to approach her and steal her car. When they got close, they found the doors locked and the windows rolled up—a complication they hadn't anticipated. The teenager then produced a gun, one he said didn't belong to him but had been lent to him that day with the understanding he would return it. He meant to frighten her with it, to force her to open the vehicle.
What happened next, according to his statement to prosecutor Pablo Insúa of the Juvenile Fiscal Office No. 1, was an accident. The boy struck the window with the pistol a couple of times. On one of those impacts, he said, the gun went off. He claimed he believed the weapon was unloaded. When he heard the shot, he ran. His two companions ran with him. None of them, he insisted, realized in that moment that the bullet had entered Suárez's body or that she was dying.
The teenager didn't learn the truth until that same night, when detectives from La Matanza's investigative division knocked on his family's door in Rafael Castillo. Frightened, he bolted again—this time across the rooftops of his neighborhood, escaping into the darkness. But something shifted in him over the following hours. He decided he wanted to turn himself in. His family, whom he described as hardworking people, contacted a lawyer. They made a plan. On Monday, four days after the shooting, the boy presented himself at the prosecutor's office with his mother, father, sister, and brother-in-law at his side.
He is now held in a juvenile detention facility awaiting a critical hearing before a guarantees court, where a judge will decide what happens to him next. The prosecutor is expected to request preventive detention. The boy and his family understand this. His 16-year-old accomplice also surrendered on Monday, brought by his mother, but refused to make any statement. A third suspect, 19 years old, was arrested during the initial search of the crime scene and has already given a statement to authorities—he told them his 17-year-old companion was the one who fired the shot.
The case now hinges on questions that a courtroom will have to answer: whether a teenager who claims an accident killed a woman can be held responsible for her death, whether his voluntary surrender and confession matter, and what justice looks like when the person who pulled the trigger is still a child himself. Rita Mabel Suárez's son was in the car when his mother was shot. He is alive. She is not. The hearing will determine whether the boy who fired the gun spends his remaining teenage years and beyond in prison.
Notable Quotes
He said he believed the weapon was unloaded and that the discharge was accidental, occurring when he struck the window with the pistol to intimidate the victim.— The 17-year-old's statement to prosecutor Pablo Insúa
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why did he turn himself in? That's unusual in a case like this.
His family decided it was the right thing to do. He was scared after the police came to his house, ran across the rooftops. But then something shifted—maybe guilt, maybe the weight of knowing what actually happened. His parents got a lawyer and they came in together.
He says the gun went off by accident. Do you believe that?
I don't know if I believe it or not. What matters is that a 47-year-old woman is dead and a teenager fired the shot. Whether he meant to or not, he brought a borrowed gun to a robbery. The accident happened inside a choice he already made.
His family is described as hardworking. Does that change anything?
It tells you something about who he is, maybe. It doesn't change what happened. But it might matter to a judge deciding his sentence. He's 17. He surrendered. He confessed. Those are facts a court will weigh.
What happens now?
A hearing. The prosecutor will ask for him to stay locked up while the case moves forward. The judge will decide. And somewhere in La Matanza, a boy is growing up without his mother.