Monday, January 22, 2007

Man who tried to commit suicide beaten to death by police

A man who tried to commit suicide by throwing himself onto the tracks of the Mexico City subway was later beaten to death by police, prosecutors said.

Mexico City attorney general's office announced in a press statement that two city policemen who took custody of the man after he was removed from the tracks have been charged with homicide for allegedly beating him to death later in a patrol car.

Truck driver Albano Ramirez Santos, reportedly despondent over the theft of his truck, had tried to kill himself on Thursday by jumping onto the tracks at a city subway station; trains were stopped, but Ramirez Santos told a subway conductor to leave him where he was because he wanted to die.

Police were then summoned and the two officers took him to a police station; but when they got there, an ambulance had to be called because he was unconscious. Medics said he was dead by the time they arrived.

A forensic report showed the man died of blows to the chest and head that were not caused by his jumping onto the tracks.

The two officers, Jose de Jesus Sanchez Lemus and Carmelo Campechano Granados, were taken to a city jail to await arraignment on the charges.

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