Apol-lònia, Pau's wife. | IB3

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Three members of the gang involved with the Saturday robbery in Porreres that resulted in the death of a gang member were arrested yesterday. One turned himself in to the Guardia Civil in the morning. He is the twin brother of Mauricio Escobar Benítez, the robber who was shot and killed. The other two live in the vicinity of the finca where the shooting took place and had been providing information to the brothers.

The national government delegate Maria Salom explained to a press conference yesterday that Mauricio Escobar Benítez's brother had felt "trapped" and so went voluntarily to a Guardia Civil station. He was questioned for two hours and the other arrests followed shortly.

Salom talked about the incident on Saturday during which the 77-year-old owner of the finca shot Mauricio Escobar Benítez in the abdomen; he later died in Son Espases Hospital.

Salom deflected any criticism of the police, saying that the Guardia Civil had been working tirelessly to find the other members of the gang. She said that a specific incident such as that in Porreres was impossible to prevent. "We have very good local police, National Police and Guardia Civil. We could have one hundred more local police officers and three more Guardia Civil patrols, but it would still be impossible to stop certain things happening."

A Manacor court is now handling the whole investigation, and yesterday there was a re-creation of Saturday's events. The court and the police will need to establish if Pau R., who is in Manacor Hospital recovering from blows he received on Saturday, had intended to kill the robber or shot him in an uncontrolled act of self-defence. He does face a possible charge of negligent homicide.

His wife, Apol-lònia Mestre, has explained that the robbers had gone to the property on a previous occasion. Following what happened on Saturday, when the robbers didn't find as much cash in the safe as they had hoped for and had started beating the couple, she has naturally been in a state of shock. Scared to return to the finca, she is currently staying with one of the couple's children.

She has confirmed that the couple did not report the previous incident. They had been threatened that they would be killed if they reported the theft to the police.

Residents in Porreres have voiced their support for Pau R. They have also spoken about a lack of security. Recently, there was a report about issues with policing - local and Guardia Civil - in Porreres and neighbouring municipalities and about the number of robberies.