Passer-by becomes tragic victim of bizarre suicide bid

It was supposed to be an outlandish suicide scheme but it ended up being a tragedy for one man in the wrong place at the wrong time. Santiago Manjón Bermúdez, 34, went on trial last week in a Madrid Provincial Court for allegedly attacking a municipal policeman with a knife. The incident occurred on the morning of May 6, 2010 when Manjón admittedly tried to provoke a police officer into shooting him.

"I was desperate and what I wanted was for the officer to kill me," Manjón testified on the second day of his trial on November 28. "I didn't have the courage to do it myself."

Manjón, who lived with his parents in Cádiz, suffers from a psychological disorder and hadn't taken his medication in the days leading up to the incident.

It was the sixth time Manjón had tried to commit suicide, he says - occasions that included jumping off the fifth floor of a building, which resulted in a broken leg. He still walks with a limp from that attempt.

After purchasing a kitchen knife for two euros from a hardware store, Manjón went to Puerta del Sol in downtown Madrid, where he once worked handing out flyers on the street for a gold trading shop, because he knew there would be a lot of policemen around.

He began kicking the door of a police vehicle because "I wanted to attract attention," he says. The officers tried to calm him down and demanded to see his identity papers. "I pulled the knife and went for the man who was speaking to me. He told me to stop but I kept going toward him. I went for them because I knew they had guns and that they could kill me."

Officer Israel Sánchez Vieco, 34, backed off a few steps before putting his nightstick back in its holder and pulling out his gun.

He fired three times, hitting Manjón in the stomach, left knee and left arm.

"I shot once but he kept coming at me. I didn't stop shooting at him until he fell. I had no other alternative," Officer Sánchez said.

The policeman's shots would change Antonio Castro Pimentel's life forever. The 52-year-old businessman from Córdoba was spending a few days in the Spanish capital with his family when he heard the commotion in Puerta del Sol, just a few meters from where he was standing.

"I heard pow, pow, pow. And then I saw how the bullet came straight at me and entered my eye," he told the judge. "I didn't lose consciousness at all but I felt a sharp pain - I went through hell."

His wife and daughter helped him as a woman who identified herself as a nurse rushed to his aid until an ambulance arrived. It was the third shot, which went through Manjón's arm, that poked Castro's left eye out, the businessman believes.

"It had to have been the third bullet because soon after I heard the final shot I saw it coming right after me. If it hadn't gone through his arm first, it would have penetrated my skull and I would be a dead man today."

The owner of an aluminum and PVC window factory, Castro has been left blind in one eye. He has undergone four surgeries, and suffers at times from headaches and bouts of depression. His work hours have been reduced because he can no longer make on-site inspections or use a computer for lengths of time. "I am no longer the same man I used to be," he says.