Ricardo López (75) was locked up in a patrol car. Ten days ago, the companions of Juliana Gómez (20) hit the glass and shouted. They cried inconsolably, in shock, after the car he was driving and in which three Argentino de Merlo players travel overturned at kilometer 128 of Route 9. At the time, that fight turned into a physical assault that could have cost him his life: They investigate whether the leader died as a result of the beating given to him by relatives of the young woman who had died in the road accident.
López lost control of the car at that point in Baradero. He was driving after a long day after the girls from Argentino de Merlo played against Atlético de Rafaela, in Santa Fe. They had asked, not once but several times, to be sent in a bus or to be paid for a hotel to spend the night and return the day after the game. The precariousness of promotion, deepened in women’s football, led to the refusal. After playing, the girls hit the road.
The truth is that the young women returned distributed in private cars and the one that López was driving was first. For reasons that are still being investigated, he lost control of the vehicle, which collided with some bushes on the central boulevard and uprooted them. It overturned and a player died in the accident.
“There are two investigations, one is that of the road accident that led to the death of Juliana Gómez and in which Ricardo López was charged with manslaughter because he was the one who was driving the vehicle. After we notified him of the accusation, he was referred to a small room to receive his first attention. At night, after all that day, the victim’s relatives went to look for him and attacked him, causing several injuries”, explained sources of the investigation consulted by Clarion.
The case was in charge of the prosecutor Vicente Gómez, of the Prosecutor’s Office 9 of Baradero.
As a result of these injuries, Ricardo López had to be referred to a hospital, where he was admitted to intensive care. Blows to one eye, to the head, to the leg and to the chest were some of the injuries described by the doctors. But what worried them most was a “subdural hematoma” from a heavy blow to the head. Once stabilized, he was referred to Morón, where he was hospitalized for his social work.
He died on Monday from the severity of his injuries.
“The other cause is labeled as investigation of cause of death. What was done was to order the autopsy expertise to determine the causes of death,” the same sources indicated.
The truth is that, despite the fact that López died, the investigation into the road accident continues, pending the accidentological expertise to determine if you may have fallen asleep, lost consciousness, or if another vehicle was involved that has not been identified.
In the same sense, Cristian Gómez, Juliana’s father, could be charged with the same crime as López before he died: manslaughter. It was he who, desperate and in the midst of shock at the death of his daughter, attacked the leader accusing him of negligence in the organization of the sporting event.
Cristian Gómez has not yet been charged and returned home after the death of his daughter. For these hours they do not rule out that it is Summoned to preliminary statement if the autopsy determines that López died as a result of the injuries that caused his blows.
“We have no words to express the deep pain that this loss causes us, we accompany his family and friends in this difficult moment,” the club published in a statement that they spread on social networks.
They then shared another photo of the man in which he is seen collaborating with a construction site at the club. “You will always be present in the heart of this family,” they wrote. Argentino de Merlo also reported that his remains were veiled in the institution from Monday night and that the club’s facilities will be closed until Tuesday due to mourning.
In a statement published online on Monday, October 10, the Argentino de Merlo players held the club’s leaders “responsible” for Juliana’s death.
“This was not an accident, this was negligence. The authorities of Argentino de Merlo should be held responsible for the death of a player, barely 20 years old, who was going to represent the club,” says the statement published by the players and replicated by Rocío Oliva, former partner of Diego Maradona, who witnessed the event, which went viral on social networks.
“The arrogance of the leaders of Argentino de Merlo, with Martín Brieva at the head, for not wanting to hire a combi, KILLED Juliana Gómez; condolences no longer matter,” the statement closes.
Tatiana Corso, Argentino de Merlo player and Juliana’s partner, suffered cervical injuries: “We always managed to do raffles for trips, and we always went by car, the club never put a bus or anything like that,” he said in an interview to the Gambeta de Dama program on Radio Provincia. “We pay for our clothes with our money. We pay the fee every month, they don’t give us anything, not even balls. We had to do raffles to buy the balls, the club only offers the name”.
“No one called me until today, nor the girls. They told one of them ‘come to treat you with the doctors here, but don’t ask for money,’ ” she closed.
According to the story of the soccer players, the squad undertook the trip to Santa Fe with private cars, starting on Friday the 7th at midnight, arriving at 7:30 on Saturday. At the end of the women’s football division C match, the players showered and they began the return without rest.
“They always expose us, but if we want to compete it is the only option: go by our own means“, denounced the players who accused the club’s leaders of not having participated in Juliana’s farewell.
The club expressed itself on the networks the day that Gómez’s death was known with the following message: “On the saddest day in the life of the club, we must report the death of the player Juliana Gómez. We have no words to express the immense pain that this loss causes us, we accompany his family and friends in this terrible moment”.
This Tuesday, at 5:00 p.m. in front of the National Congress, Players, former Players, technical directors, will hold an assembly under the slogans: “Equal conditions”, “Don’t turn your back on us”, and “Enough of laziness in the women’s football” to demand from the Argentine Football Association (AFA) decent conditions for the sport.
GL