Surveillance video showed the shocking moment a grandfather shot and killed his grandson, purportedly over a debt.
On Monday afternoon, Domingo Verna, 77, fired five rounds at Brian Verna, 29, as he stood behind the front door of his home in the Argentine harbor city of Baha Blanca.
Brian Serna was shot in the abdomen, chest, neck, cheek, and shoulder, according to an autopsy report.
Domingo Verna’s daughter, who also happens to be the mother of his victim Brian, claims that her father is a domestic abuser who abused her while she was pregnant.
On Wednesday, the retired military veteran was released from prison after appearing before a magistrate.
The magistrate took ‘into account the penalty provided by law for this crime and the advanced age of the accused.’
According to Argentine TV station Todo Noticias, Baha Blanca prosecutor Chris Long said the grandfather might have done more to prevent the killing and dismissed the shooting as a defensive tactic.
“He could have engaged in a totally different activity, such as calling 911, calling the police or calling a neighbor, rather than fully discharging the barrel of his revolver into his grandson’s body,” Long said.
Brian Verna charged towards his grandfather while his girlfriend, Aldana Soria, was dragged through the floor, clinging to his legs in an attempt to stop him, according to footage from the chaotic events.
Brian Verna swung a broomstick at brother Domingo Verna and got away from Soria before he punched him repeatedly.
Soria moved forward and was able to restrain her boyfriend as a result.
After a few hours, Brian Verna returned and began kicking down the door. After the fourth attempt, his grandfather opened the door and shot him, sending him crashing over a row of plants.
Domingo Verna exited the house and began conversing with his wife, Marta Verna, before Mariel Verna went over from her house and discovered her son laying on the ground.
Mariel Verna told Telefe Rosario that her father had previously stalked her son and that the death was intentional since he shut the door to the house.
‘Brian was harassed by his grandfather, I say that for sure. I experienced it on Thursday (June 9). Monday was the third time that he was waiting through the (surveillance) cameras to attack him, to claim him who knows what money he owes him,’ she said. ‘It was all masochism and masochism of ‘you owe me the money’ and with interest.’
She stated that her son was diagnosed with a mental condition when he was six years old. In Buenos Aires, he was treated by a neurologist before going to Bahia Blanca, where he received treatment throughout his adolescence.
Mariel Verna claims that her parents never believed he had a mental illness and refused to give him medication when they looked after him.
‘My parents withdrew his medication because, according to them, he didn’t need it,’ Verna explained. ‘The fault that my son is like this was all mine. They always blamed me for it and they never assumed he was mentally ill.’
Her father had a history of abusing her mother, as well as her and her siblings, she told Todo Noticias. He allegedly beat her while she was pregnant, she claimed.
She admitted that Brian Verna had stopped taking his medication two months ago and that she couldn’t make him because he was an adult. She claimed she had to call the cops on multiple times due to his hostile behavior toward her.
Her father and son both worked for the city parks department. Brian Verna requested a transfer to another parks department, according to her, but her father interfered so that her son could “remain working under his orders.”
‘My father didn’t say a word to me. With my own eyes, I heard how he shot him at close range,’ Mariel Verna said. ‘The girlfriend grabbed him so he wouldn’t go … (he) dragged her. My son left the bicycle stuck in the patio, he hurt himself so as not to hit my father.’