A shot ended the life of a policeman and father

In a wooden cabinet in the living room of her house, Irene Tibán keeps a chest with the ashes of her husband Rodrigo Alquinga. He was a first sergeant of the Police and died during a confrontation with assailants on March 26, 2014.

The woman walks around the living room and tells what happened to her husband. She says that he left for work, as she did every morning, at 06:00. At that time, he was in charge of the security of Petroecuador officials.

Irene still remembers the last kiss her husband gave her before leaving home. She also said goodbye to her four children. He promised them that he would return in the evening for dinner.

In the afternoon, the woman began to think that something had happened to him because he didn't call at lunchtime like he used to do every day. At that time, she called by phone to ask if her children had arrived safely from school.

A call broke the silence in the room that afternoon. At 3:00 p.m., a uniformed man called her. He told him that some unknown persons had shot Rodrigo, that they had wounded him and that he was in the Police Hospital with a bullet wound in his stomach.

The attack occurred an hour earlier, according to official documents. There it is stated that Alguinga was having lunch in a restaurant in the Pradera sector, in the north of Quito and near Petroecuador.

Suddenly he heard shots. She went out into the street and saw that a man had been shot by sharpshooters to rob him of $2,000 in cash. He tried to stop them and a shootout started. One bullet entered the abdomen.

Tibán remembers that he immediately went to the hospital with his eldest son. He couldn't see it because he was rushed into surgery at 3:00 p.m. After five hours of waiting, one of the doctors came out and informed him of Rodrigo's death. This episode is told through tears. “Seven years have passed and the pain remains. It's something I can't forget. My children lost their father because of crime."

While she was in the hospital, a candle was lit in the house of the Alquinga Tibán couple. One of her children had turned it on after her older brother told him the facts.

“I began to pray, I hoped he would be cured.” At night the mother called the house and told them that her father had passed away. After the news, only screams of pain and despair were heard.

A week after the violent event, the then Ministry of the Interior reported that the person who shot the agent also died. According to investigations at the time, the attacker was a 24-year-old foreigner who had a criminal record for robbery and fraud.

On April 1, 2014, two accomplices in the murder were also arrested in Quito.

Since that year and up to this month, 26 members of the Police have been assassinated. The statistics are part of a database of the institution. The last deadly attack was perpetrated against Sergeant Jorge Chiliguano on June 13.

The body of Sergeant Alquinga was laid awake at the facilities of the Intervention and Rescue Group (GIR). His companions covered the coffin with the Ecuadorian Flag.

He worked as a commando since 1993. For 15 years his work consisted of training dogs to detect explosives. Being a special agent, he was also assigned security to officials.

When Tibán was 18 years old, he met Alquinga and they began a relationship. After having their first child, they got married. After remembering that moment, she gets up from the sofa, walks a few steps and approaches a photo of her husband that is hanging on the dining room wall. In that picture, he is dressed in his uniform.

At home, photos of him are hung everywhere. “It is a way of always keeping him present in our lives and remembering him.” For the family, his absence is felt. For example, this year, on Father's Day, two of his daughters wrote him a letter and placed it on the chest of ashes.

Despite the pain, his sons decided to follow in their father's footsteps. The first of them became a policeman. A year ago he graduated as a second lieutenant and two weeks ago he joined the GIR. "Now he wears the uniform that belonged to Rodrigo."

Her second son, on the other hand, is studying medicine. "He wants to work at the Police Hospital," says her mother.

Alquinga passed away a week after being promoted to non-commissioned officer. His family had organized a party to celebrate that event. He was decorated as a national hero in November of that same year. In addition, he had institutional recognition because in 2004 he saved the life of a colleague during an assault.