Another bomb falls on Palomares

José Antonio Zamora was covered in blood as he got into his car on July 26. He went to his parents' house, grabbed a rifle, and drove to Cabeza Martino, a neighborhood in Palomares, in Cuevas del Almanzora (Almería), where many Spanish Gypsy families live. When he got there, he stopped in front of one of the houses. He got out of his car, knocked at the door, and when 25-year-old Cristóbal Santiago answered, he shot him. The victim's mother, Fermina Carmen Santiago Fernández, aged 42, launched herself at the attacker, and managed to bite him on the nose. She was the next to die. To finish the job off, Zamora shot the head of the family, Juan Antonio Santiago, aged 46.

After carrying out this triple homicide, Zamora gave himself up to the Civil Guard in Cuevas del Almanzora. He confessed everything. He had no intention of escaping. He just wanted to find peace, and finish off the architects of his long nightmare. He wanted to put an end to the robberies, beatings and threats, which, according to his confession, his victims had subjected him to for more than three years. The last beating had been doled out just hours before he committed the triple murder. The first took place several years ago.

After carrying out the triple homicide, Zamora gave himself up to the Civil Guard

"What happened to him could have happened to any of us," says one resident

José Antonio Zamora, married and with a young daughter, is a well-known businessman in the construction trade, who managed to survive the crisis in the sector. In 2008, there was a series of robberies at the site of one of his projects, the thieves making off with machinery and material. Once he was sure of the people behind the crimes, he let the Civil Guard know. They were members of the family that he attacked, and they never forgave him for having gone to the authorities. From that point onward, confrontations and petty thieving - including in Zamora's own home - were a regular occurrence, according to friends of the arrested man.

As time went on, the intensity and severity of the incidents increased. The family entered Zamora's home on several occasions, making off with whatever they could: building materials, hens - "They even killed his dog," says one of Zamora's neighbors, who chose to remain anonymous.

Five days before the shooting, Zamora was subjected to a brutal beating, doled out by four people - including some of those he later killed - at a gas station. The images of the fight were caught on security cameras and have been passed on to the Civil Guard. That day, Zamora reported the assault to the police, which led to another assault - the one that sparked the shooting.

"I'm not justifying what he did, because he killed three people, but what happened to him could have happened to any of us," says an employee of a grocery store. Speaking about the inhabitants of Cabeza Martino, she has this to say: "They live off other people. They never come into the town, only for the yearly fiestas, or to grab things out of the trash, or wherever." She is referring to the scrap metal that the inhabitants of the neighborhood allegedly acquire illegally, which provides their main source of income.

The rest of the town, made up of about 2,000 inhabitants, live primarily off agriculture. At the funeral of the victims, which took place on July 28 amid high security measures, several of the family's former employees were in attendance. They never, they said, had any problems with them.

These events have awoken a number of ghosts for the residents of Palomares, who have been in and out of the headlines since the 1960s, when a US Air Force bomber crashed near to the town, dropping its load of four hydrogen bombs over the area. "This is a real bomb," says Juan José Pérez, a local councilor, as he leaves the burial of the husband and wife and their son, which took place at the church in Palomares. He warns that now should be a "time for caution," given the likelihood of revenge attacks for the killings against the Zamora family.

One of the sisters of the dead woman was even more succinct. "It would be better for all of the family to disappear from the town, because we don't want any more chapters in this story - it ends here," she shouted on leaving the church. But the Zamora family didn't need any such warning. All of the direct family members of José Antonio left their houses as soon as the shootings took place.

It would be logical, however, for them to come back sooner of later. All were born in Palomares, and have family ties that stretch back generations.

"This is a town of working people," says Jesús Caicedo, mayor of Cuevas del Almanzora and a Popular Party senator, who attended the funeral. "I call for public-spiritedness and good sense, qualities that characterize our people. I have never made a distinction based on race in my town."

However, the population is divided. All of them know that Zamora's actions were in response to the treatment he had received from the family. "They told him that they would go after his daughter and his wife if he didn't retract the police complaint for assault," a witness says. One story has finished, but another might be about to start.

"He should be hung," said the relatives of the victims at the funeral. Indeed, Zamora will be sharing a jail with some of those family members, given that a number of them are incarcerated in the El Acebuche prison, where Zamora was sent on July 29. One of those is the father of the woman he shot. The man was at the funeral of his daughter in handcuffs, flanked by two police officers. He had a request for them: "Put him in my cell."