A six-months-pregnant police officer from San Juan was wounded by a gunshot while inside the police station where she works, and the person who fired the shot was reportedly a colleague who was handling his service weapon.
The incident occurred last Monday at the police station in the town of La Bebida, in the Rivadavia department, where officer Mariana Jofré, 29 years old, mother of an eight-year-old girl and six months pregnant, is stationed.
While she was carrying out her routine administrative duties, her colleague Cristian Albarracín was nearby, handling his service weapon. It was at that moment that the shot was fired under circumstances that are under investigation.
The hypothesis being considered by investigators is that Albarracín had taken part in a pursuit alongside another officer, to whom he had apparently lent his weapon and who returned it to him apparently loaded without warning him.
Albarracín was handling his weapon with his back to Jofré when the shot was allegedly fired involuntarily. Forensic examinations are now focused on establishing through expert analysis and other measures exactly how the shot was fired and what degree of responsibility lies with the charged officer.
After being struck by the bullet, officer Jofré was urgently transferred to receive medical attention and subsequently underwent surgery.
On Friday she left the CIMYN clinic where she had been hospitalized, after making a favorable recovery from the surgery in which the bullet lodged in her body was removed. The medical center reported that her pregnancy is continuing without complications.
Meanwhile, Albarracín has been formally charged and the court has set an eight-month period to investigate the circumstances of the shooting. The officer remains free while the process moves forward.
Newsletter Clarín
