suspected criminals kill three policemen

Three Nicaraguan police officers died in a shootout in a town in the northern department of Matagalpa while trying to capture a suspected criminal, the National Police reported Monday.

In a press release, the institution stated that the incident occurred on Sunday night in the Villa Libertad neighborhood, municipality of Esquipulas, some 110 kilometers north of the capital, where the police “performed surveillance and patrolling tasks.”

According to the official version, the police were after a criminal identified as Wilfredo de Jesús Arancibia Espinoza, wanted for a homicide committed in August 2021.

Upon entering a bar where Arancibia Espinoza was supposed to be, the agents were shot at by him and two other people. The deceased police officers are the inspector Ana María Huerta Montenegro, 39, and non-commissioned officers José Eliseo González, 27, and William Javier Alvarado, 30, it was indicated.

The press release added that the police captured the two companions of Arancibia Espinoza, who fled.

The force identified the subject, 31, as a “very dangerous criminal.”

For her part, the vice president and government spokesperson Rosario Murillo lamented the event, which she described as “a tragedy.”

In his usual daily statements to official media, Murillo said that the agents “were carrying out their security work” when “they were killed by criminals who were in a bar consuming liquor.”

He added that the three police officers will be promoted posthumously ahead of their funerals on Tuesday.

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