Mateo was still saved on the spot, but to no avail.
Evidence showed the attacker entered the sports centre at around 9.45am, but no one saw him arrive, so he would not have entered through the main door. One hypothesis being investigated is that the alleged killer jumped about five feet or climbed through one of the holes in the fence that children sometimes use when the door is closed.
It is also known that the suspect initially tried to attack a group of boys aged 14-15, who managed to escape. He then went to other younger children and began stabbing Mateo, the only child who was unable to escape or jump over the fence.
The screams alerted the participants of a tennis tournament taking place in the same sports complex. Alberto was one of them and one of the first to help the boy. “We found him face up. He had a big knife wound on his chest. I took off my shirt to cover it, put pressure on the wound and put it on his chest,” Alberto said, El MundoThe man recalls that Mateo had cuts on his arms and legs and was unconscious, surrounded by pools of blood.
Eyewitnesses called 112 and gave them instructions on how to resuscitate the child and how to perform cardiorespiratory massage. “A former police officer and an undercover civil protection officer started massaging him until the ambulance arrived. And I told him: ‘Come on, Mateo, wake up, breathe!’ Then I saw the child die in my arms,” Alberto said. El Mundo.
Neighbors say Mateo’s family is well known in the area because they own the popular Hermanos Gómez bakery in the city center. The parents are separated, but family members say they have a good relationship. Cesar, the father, lives in Escalonilla and was with Mateo’s sister, and the boy was with his mother, who has since rebuilt her life with another partner. “They’re a very good family, a very hard-working family. They’re not a broken family,” the neighbor said.