Minute of silence called this Thursday by the City Council of Argamasilla de Calatrava for the neighbors to express their condolences to the families affected by the shots registered this Wednesday in the city of La Mancha Jesus Monroy (EFE)
The streets and terraces of Argamasilla de Calatrava (Ciudad Real, 5,900 inhabitants) this Thursday were filled with incredulous faces repeating the same speech: how kind Alejandro Congosto was, what a good farmer José Luis El Bonito was and how terrible this Alfonso Lamas killed both shots and wounded his own father before being gunned down by Civil Guards on Wednesday morning. In the colloquia, the phrase “from the movie” is heard to define the facts, and the sedation is maintained about the possibility that the killer had arrived in town after filming everything he could from his home had seen. Several neighbors agree that “nobody expected it” and assures that these things are only seen on TV.
Dozens of people gathered in front of La Mancha City Hall this Thursday afternoon to observe a five-minute silence for the murdered agent, who is very popular in the city, and for the gardener who tried to persuade Alfonso Lamas’ son, around 50 years old swell that he hit his father, 81. A shootout began there, causing three other injuries, including another agent. Several police patrols took part in the act to pay their respects to the partner. Today’s service uniform includes sad faces among the practitioners, such as those whose dismissal 10 years ago led to the 37-year-old settling in the place where “he integrated very well” and had conceived together with his partner Paula , out of seven. “He was a very good person and a great professional, he gave his life to save others,” says the police officer.
Several neighbors applaud during the five minutes of silence to pay tribute to the victims of yesterday’s shooting in Plaza del Ayuntamiento on October 27, 2022 in Argamasilla de Calatrava, Ciudad Real, Castile-La-Mancha (Spain) Eusebio Garcia del Castillo ( European press)
Argamasilla’s affection for Alejandro is palpable in the tavern in the square, where a regular tries to assuage his grief with a joke: “Alejandro was the only nice policeman.” Another client, Emilio V., who does not reveal more than the first letter of his surname, praises “his left hand” as he scolded the perpetrator with a smile for small offenses so that he could correct his guilt before greater evils. From the 60-year-old farmer who was shot while trying to convey the precise argument that he was “a lifelong worker.”
The recipients of the incredulity and compassion of downtown streets are in a private room of a hotel outside of the community. There, a woman, the agent’s wife, is sobbing, surrounded by relatives and with her ear to the phone. “Poor Paula has remained fatherless,” she yells at her interlocutor, who begs her to thank her for the support she has received because, supported by a relative who grabs her by the shoulder, she seems incapable . Alejandro Congosto, a native of Talavera de la Reina (Toledo), has received the Police Merit Medal posthumously from the community, leaving a void in Argamasilla that makes 25-year-old Loubna El Bouaichi cry, seated on a bench in front of a mural by Don Quixote with her friend and neighbor Milagros Cota, 75.
In this place La Mancha, in the century that you add up between the two, nothing like this had ever happened. “Because they would have riddled the killer if he hadn’t gone further,” says the woman, who murmurs, “The boy is nicer… he gave his life for all of us.” The woman from Ciudad Real gets up, leaning on her a hospital crutch and the human crutch that accompanies her before walking past neighbors who talk about nothing else.
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Míriam Prieto, 25, reaches for a soft drink to recover after a sleepless night. She meets the dead farmer’s son. “The boy is incredulous, he’s in shock, it’ll get worse over time,” predicts the young woman, who is teeming with film theses about the events in which the police and Guardia Civil block a road and shoot a murderer: “You believe Don’t do it, you always see it on TV until it happens here.” The Argamasilla Police Station, located next to the Civil Guard Barracks and Health Center, shows with dozens of candles and bouquets of flowers honoring the agent that there aren’t any fiction is.
In a bar near the church of San Juan Bautista, different conversations are held about the same news. A man drinking beer resorts to drinkable English interspersed with a few words and lots of facial expressions to tell a foreigner what happened on Wednesday. In Spanish, Miguel Ángel Muñiz, 50, who knew Los Alfonsos as they were known for these payments, interjects and mentions that the offspring suffered an accident as a child that left them with brain injuries. No one ever thought that this “sticky” man would take the gun of his father, who was licensed, and do what he was doing before he was shot down. Like in the movies.
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