A man died in the custody of Ladyville police sometime this morning and now the community wants answers. Well known roadside tire repairman Ricardo Gallego was detained yesterday on a theft charge. But he never lived to face arraignment on that charge. Gallego was found dead early this morning, and 7NEWS was there as the crime scene team went into the police station to remove his body.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
This morning at 9:30 am, Ricardo Gallego's dead body was carted out of the Ladyville Police Station and taken in a police patrol truck covered only in a plain white sheet. Gallego was a tire repairman who operated out of this workshop on the speed bump at mile 10 on the Northern Highway. He was picked from an area near here on Monday evening by a police and BATSUB Patrol because he was riding a bicycle that had been stolen from BATSUB. His friend David McCullough saw the arrest.
David McCullough,
"He was picked up because the police had come. Apparently they had a burglary in the camp and they came with their RMPs and different things and they came by and they picked up Mr. Gallego along with another guy that lived here with him."
Jules Vasquez,
But he was riding a stolen bike, it appears.
David McCullough,
"The bike, as I know my neighbors them, and what happened is the bike belonged to the next guy that lives here with him but he was riding it at the time that they apparently went and picked him up."
The official police story is that he died in his sleep sometime between 3:30 am and 6:30 am. He was in a cell with two other men, also suspects in the burglary. When police tried to wake him, he did not respond.
Gerald Westby, COMPOL
"It was regrettable. He was detained for handling stolen goods. We don't suspect any alleged misuse or abuse by police but again I have directed that Internal Affairs looks at it comprehensively and thoroughly and then we'll make a ruling."
And while the police say they didn't kill him, this community activist says that with the record of police in the area, that has to be proven.
David McCullough,
"It's a shocking news to me to know that such things happen in such a short time. I don't know if the policeman had anything to do with it anything but we have several instances in this community whereby a lot of people have been taken down to the station and they've been placed to bend over and they were whapped in their kidney and officers have them they would split blood now if you don't talk. We have a couple people that have been beaten down like the Hilton brother, he had got beaten up and he died, and.we had the next guy shot in Los Lagos. A lot of terror has happened against the people of this community involving the law and I think the law is here to protect us and we shouldn't be scared of the law, we supposed to cooperate with the law. We need the law. Knowing that Mr. Gallego had died, I don't know if it is natural causes or anything but if it is not, I think we need to have an inquiry into his death and we don't need all these deaths just adding up and going to no solution at all."
Pre-empting the post mortem, police today said that no signs of violence were visible on the body. In a gratuitous addition, police note that Gallego was, "a heavy drinker" and was, quote "reportedly suffering from liver ailments."
