In what La Voz is calling “Black Tuesday”:
– The son of a local farmer in Palomares shot dead three members of the same gypsy family last night in a street just off the main square, using his fathers shotgun. It appears that the teenager had been having some problems with the family, which had culminated in him denouncing them to the Police. He then took matters into his own hands.
Armed police are now patrolling Palomares, after several members of the gypsy family vanished into the night promising “vengeance” and “the worse is yet to come”, and residents are terrified that as soon as the police presence is lifted a bloodbath will unfold in the town. (Remember Bodas de sangre? Written about an event that happened just down the road. Same sort of thing, only no wedding). Gypsy families don’t general trust the Judicial system in this sort of thing, and prefer to “sort things out” man to man, in an Old Testament sort of way.
– A jilted lover in El Alquián (near Almería city) broke into his ex-girlfriends shop, poured petrol everywhere then struck a match. He is currently in intensive care with third degree burns (prat!). Neighbours said the blaze was “impressive”.
-And a woman is in jail, and has had her six-month baby seized by social services, after being arrested for systematically mistreating it and breaking several bones.
Must be the heat.