The false information that two armed men were in the parking lot of a department store in central Madrid on Saturday led to the subsequent deployment of the police, scenes of confusion and the proliferation of unconfirmed data on social networks, some with racist content. Although the initial testimony, nor any of the subsequent verifications, indicate it, X was full of messages pointing to the “Arab appearance” of the suspects. In reality, it was Ismael Serrano, accompanied by a collaborator, who left tripods in the car after recording the presentation of a children’s book that the musician’s partner had written.
The events occurred on Saturday at noon near the Plaza del Callao. This place, very busy every day and even more so on weekends, was evicted by the police, as recorded by a user X from a nearby balcony. The officers acted in the same way in the shopping center, which caused scenes of confusion and nervousness. When it was confirmed that it was a false alarm, the police reported on their X account: “A person who mistook a tripod for a firearm alerted the officers.”
A 19-year-old man had alerted the public to the presence of men allegedly armed in the parking lot, police sources informed elDiario.es. The boy did not mention at any time that the alleged attackers had “an Arab appearance.” While the police officers in charge of citizen security were evacuating the premises, judicial police officers viewed the parking lot cameras and ruled out that the two men were carrying weapons.
An account with more than 100,000 followers included one of the recorded videos of the Callao eviction, claiming that the complaint came from “a woman,” that the suspects had “an Arab appearance,” and that “they would have already been arrested.” “We warned that this would happen and it is already happening in Spain… The culprits, the PSOE, the PP and the sons of bitches who vote for them,” said another user with more than 30,000 followers. These messages remained in the accounts that sent them even after the hoax was debunked.
Contacted by elDiario.es, Ismael Serrano expressed the surprise that he learned through social networks of the magnitude that the false alarm had reached. After recording the presentation of his partner’s book, he went with a worker from his production company to drop off the tripods in the vehicle that they had parked at the commercial establishment. He then went to eat with his family and upon his return with his partner and the three children of the family, he was contacted by the police, who had already ruled out an armed attack but were carrying out final checks.
“The police treated us impeccably. There was nothing but the annoyance of the children who approached us and we had to wait for the judicial police to arrive to talk to them,” says Serrano. The singer-songwriter regrets that “this type of incident increases paranoia in terms of security, seeing threats where there are none.” Serrano could not believe it when, later, back home, he saw the magnitude that the event had reached on social networks and the attention that some users were giving it.
Before questioning Ismael Serrano, the investigators had questioned the complainant. The young man was contradictory and told the judicial police officers that he was undergoing psychiatric treatment. Some digital media and Telemadrid reported the eviction, before it was proven that it was a false alarm, only in the sense that someone had warned of the presence of two armed men in the area.
MEP Alvise Pérez posted on his Telegram channel that the two suspects had been “arrested” and that they had “criminal records.” He then offered his more than 700,000 followers an “extension” warning that it was a “false alarm,” while insisting that the suspects had been arrested and searched.
