The Pozzetto massacre was carried out by 52-year-old Campo Elías Delgado at three locations in eastern Bogotá, Colombia on 4 December 1986. Over the course of seven hours, 29 people were killed and 11 others were injured.
Delgado first murdered nine people, including his mother, at two apartment buildings, luring some out by triggering the fire alarm system. Afterwards, he went to the upscale Restaurant Pozzetto, where Delgado opened fire on customers and staff, killing 20 people before being shot dead by police. It is currently the deadliest shooting by a lone gunman in the country's history.
Incident
Preparation On 3 December 1986, around noon, Delgado entered the Banco de Bogotá to close his bank account and withdraw his entire deposits of COP$49,896.93. When the cashier handed him a round number of COP$49,896.50, Delgado insisted on receiving the remaining 43 cents. Either during the afternoon of the same day, or the next morning, Delgado bought a .32-caliber Smith & Wesson Model 31-1 revolver and 500 rounds of ammunition.La Masacre, Semana (5 January 1987)
Apartment buildings On 4 December, at approximately 2:00 p.m., Delgado went to an apartment building at Calle 118 No. 40–11 in the La Alhambra barrio of Usaquén and entered apartment 304, where Nora Becerra de Rincón lived with her teenage daughter Claudia Rincón, to whom Delgado had given lessons in English, as well as her son Julio Eduardo, her mother, and her mother's friend. Only Nora and Claudia were at home when Delgado arrived. Delgado gagged and handcuffed Nora, placing her on the couch in the living room before stabbing her nine times in the neck and chest with a hunting knife. He also gagged Claudia and bound her hands and feet before stabbing her 22 times in the back and left side of the chest, leaving her dead on a bed. Both died from hypovolemic shock as a result of the stab wounds. Nora's sister tried to call them about Claudia's upcoming First Communion, but did not report them missing. Julio found the bodies the next day, after spending the day locked out of the apartment until a locksmith picked open the door. Their murders were not initially connected to Delgado's later killings.
At 4:00 p.m., Delgado was back at the apartment he shared with his mother at Carrera 7, Calle 52 in Chapinero. Around 5:30 p.m., after a heated argument with her, he walked up behind Rita Delgado and killed her with a single stab to the back of the neck, afterwards wrapping her body in newspapers, sprinkling it with gasoline, and setting it on fire. Delgado then grabbed his revolver and a briefcase containing five boxes of ammunition and the knife, and ran through the apartment complex screaming "Fire! Fire!" He went downstairs and rang at apartment 301, where students Inés Gordi Galat and Nelsy Patricia Cortés were living, saying that he needed to call the fire department. As soon as they opened the door, Delgado killed both women with single shots to the head and then proceeded to apartment 302, where he did the same with Gloria Isabel Agudelo León, who had been alarmed by the shooting and opened the door to investigate.
Delgado then headed down to the first floor where he rang at apartment 101, again pretending that he needed to call the fire department. The apartment was occupied by four women, Mrs. Berta Gómez, who saved her life by jumping out into the courtyard, as well as students Matilde Rocío González, Mercedes Gamboa, and Claudia del Pilar Bermúdez Durán, who were all shot. With Delgado still screaming "fire, fire," the door was opened by Claudia del Pilar Bermúdez, who turned towards the kitchen to get him a wet cloth. When she turned around, Delgado shot her in the back of the head. González, who had already picked up the telephone receiver, and Gamboa both died at the scene, while Claudia Bermúdez died a few hours later in Hospital San José.
Outside the building, Delgado stood still for about ten minutes, staring at a poster advertising a play of Blood Wedding at a local theater, which was witnessed by a resident's relative, Blanca Agudelo de González. Meanwhile, Berta Gómez flagged down a police patrol to ask them for help, but the car did not stop. Gómez then approached a security booth of the Army Health Directorate across the building, but seeing the fire on the fourth floor, the two posted officers responded that this was more a case for the firefighters and therefore did not intervene.
Just after 5:30 p.m., Delgado left for house number 201 at Carrera 28A No. 51–31, where the Castro family was living, with whom he had been friends for five years. He arrived there about 15 minutes later in a rather agitated state. The Castros were surprised to see Delgado in a formal suit, as he usually wore short-sleeved shirts, even in the cold season. Against his habit of being a man of rather few words, Delgado talked incessantly, repeated sentences several times, and paced through the living room, declining any of Mrs. Castro's invitations to sit down. She had seen the outline of Delgado's gun in his pants, but thought nothing of it since he had started carrying one for self-protection. According to Clemencia de Castro, Delgado told her that he had come to say farewell, as he had bought a one-way ticket and would go on a trip to the United States or China.
At 6:45 p.m., Delgado left the Castros, assuring them that they would soon hear from him, and went to Restaurante Pozzetto, an Italian restaurant opened in 1976 at Carrera 7, No. 61-24 - in the same district where he ate frequently, discarding the hunting knife on his way. By that time police and journalists were searching for the murderer throughout the city. Most television broadcasts were interrupted to report on the murders committed at the apartment building at Calle 51, having already identified Delgado through the description by the doorman, although reporting only three dead at the time.
Restaurant Pozzetto Delgado arrived at the restaurant at around 7:15 p.m. While he always chose to be seated at table 5, this time he sat down at table 20, possibly to get a better view on the other diners. Because Delgado was dressed formally with a suitcase and typically didn't visit on weekdays, his usual waiter, Alfonso Guaneme, asked if it was his birthday, to which Delgado responded that he was celebrating "something very personal". He ordered his usual meal, spaghetti bolognese, but instead of his drink of choice, Colombiana cola, Delgado uncharacteristically ordered alcohol, a half bottle of red wine. While waiting, he had a minor argument with some present children, who mocked his disheveled appearance, facial features, and balding hair. The waiters noticed that during his meal Delgado went to the restroom several times. After finishing his meal, he ordered dessert, read an American magazine, ordered two screwdriver cocktails, and paid his bill, telling the attending waiter, Ecce Homo Rosas, that he would compose a poem for his service. As usual, Delgado gave a large tip to Guaneme, who offered Delgado a third vodka on the house. Delgado accepted and told Guaneme "You always treat me well. I'll keep that in mind". Delgado drank a third vodka at around 8:15 p.m., handing Rosas payment and the promised poem. Afterwards, he sat down at the bar to have a fourth.
Delgado opened fire on the diners at approximately 9:15 p.m. According to witnesses, Delgado had taken out his gun and shouted that he was committing a robbery. With most inside having ducked to the floor, he approached individual people and demanded they hand over money. Instead, Delgado shot each person twice in the head at point-blank range as they bent down to reach for their wallets or pockets. In this manner, he shot 32 people, 19 of them fatally. Delgado promised not to kill any children, but he accidentally killed a six-year-old girl sitting at an adjacent table when his revolver misfired. Police arrived three to four minutes later, surrounding the building, breaking the glass windows and tearing away curtains to get a better view of the interior. Officers began exchanging gunfire with Delgado approximately ten minutes after their arrival. Several people escaped out the front entrance during this time, including the restaurant manager, who begged officers to stop their operation and stated that they had "already cost [him] a million pesos". Within a minute of the shootout, Delgado was apparently killed with a shot to the temple by a police officer.
There was the widespread belief that Delgado committed suicide, based on the testimony of 11-year-old Johana Cubillos Garzón, who said that she saw Delgado shoot himself as police breached the windows. After some time, police discovered with a comparison of the bullets that Delgado was shot by a police officer while he was reloading.Instinto Asesino – La Masacre de Pozzetto, Discovery Channel It is alleged that because the assailant was only armed with a revolver, meanwhile some victims had been struck by Uzi shots, that some of the victims at the restaurant were actually slain by police crossfire.
Victims Two people were killed at the Calle 118 apartments. Seven people were killed at the Calle 51 apartments. At Pozzetto, thirteen people were dead at the scene. Fifteen injured people were brought to San José, San Ignacio, and San Pedro hospital and various military medical centers. Of the wounded, an additional six died in the hours after the shooting, while another died four days later. With the exception of an Italian national, all were Colombian citizens.
One of the first victims at Pozzetto was journalist Jairo Goméz Remolina, renowned for his true crime works and interactions with Colombian criminals such as Pedro López and Daniel Camargo Barbosa. Gómez Remolina had reportedly sat at a table closest to Delgado and most likely been unable to flee due to physical disability as well as partial blindness.
In the days following the massacre, the public list of casualties was repeatedly revised, as some fatalities had their names misspelled or expunged, their ages misstated, or were first listed as injuries and vice versa. Some victims were mistakenly counted twice, such as Claudia del Pilar Bermúdez, since she died at a hospital where victims of the Pozzetto shooting were treated. The murders of Nora Becerra and Claudia Rincón were only tentatively connected on 6 December 1986.
Calle 118
Nora Isabel Becerra de Rincón, 36 Claudia Marcela Rincón, 14 or 15, daughter of Nora Becerra
Calle 51
Rita Elisa Morales de Delgado, 72, Delgado's mother Gloria Inés Gordi Galat Nelsy Patricia Cortés Viassus, 26 Gloria Isabel Agudelo León, 50, professor Matilde Rocío González Rojas, 23 Mercedes Gamboa Gonzáles, 20 Claudia del Pilar Bermúdez Durán, 29
Pozzetto
Killed
Carlos Alfredo Cabal Cabal, leader of the Nuevo Liberalismo in Valle Consuelo Pezantes Andrade, 23 Antonio Maximiliano Pezantes Ricaurte, 57, father of Consuelo Hernando Ladino Benavides, 41 Grace Guzmán Valenzuela, 20 Giorgio Pindi Vanelli, 55 Alvaro de Jésus Montes Ramírez, 20 Jairo Enrique Gómez Remolina, 42, director of Revista Vea Rita Julia Valenzuela de Guzmán, 57 Andrés Montaño Figueroa, physician Alvaro Pérez Buitrago, 38, Colombian Army major Sonia Adriana Alvarado Tamayo, 25 Laureano Bautista Fajardo, 45
Died at hospitals Diana Graciela María Eugenía Cuevas Gallo, 45, executive of Revista Cromos Zulemita Glogower Lester, 31 Helena Andrés Peña, 19 Sandra Henao de López Guillermo Umaña Montoya Marly Cubillos Garzón, 6 José Darío Martínez, 21
Injured Victor Mauricio Pérez Serrano, rural doctor Maribel Arce de Pérez Juliet Robledo Judith Glogower Lester, sister of Zulemita Glogower Lester and wife of Diego Betancur Álvarez, daughter-in-law of former president Belisario Betancur Myriam Ortiz de Parrado, 45 Pedro José Sarmiento, physician Alfonso Cubillos, father of Marly Cubillos Garzón