10 ertzainas were injured this Sunday, four of whom were hospitalized and one in serious condition, as part of the operation to arrest five individuals in Vitoria after robbing a shopping center in San Sebastián and fleeing at high speed aboard two vehicles.
As reported by the Basque Security Department, the arrests took place this morning in Vitoria, while the five suspects were fleeing in two vehicles from a theft committed in the Garbera shopping center in Donostia. Those arrested are charged with the offenses of forceful robbery, attack on officers, theft and traffic safety offences.
This Sunday, a few minutes before seven in the morning, the Ertzaintza learned a forceful theft committed in an establishment in the Garbera shopping center in Donostia. Several police resources responded to the scene and were able to verify the theft in a commercial establishment.
The agents verified that the criminals went to the company in two vehicles on which they had affixed license plates that they had stolen the day before from other cars parked in Vitoria, also specifying that a vehicles they were using had also been stolen.
Since then, the Ertzaintza has set up a surveillance system which made it possible to locate those involved an hour later while they were traveling at high speed near Vitoria, on the A-1.
The alleged perpetrators of the theft attempted to flee the Ertzaintza by driving in the opposite direction on the A-1 and the N-622. The officers managed to intercept them near the Abetxuko neighborhood in Vitoria, but the thieves attacked the police vehicles with great violence.
Five men were arrestedaccused of the offenses of theft with force, theft, attack against officers and against road safety. The five people arrested violently resisted their arrest. As a result, ten ertzainas were injured, four were hospitalized, including one in the intensive care unit.
The detainees have been transferred to police stations to continue the relevant procedures, once completed, they will be taken into custody.
The investigation remains open to try to determine the involvement of those arrested in a theft of similar characteristics suffered by the same establishment at the beginning of the year.
