SANTO DOMINGO — Just two weeks after the fatal police-related death of 21-year-old Darlyn Mercado sparked widespread public outcry, demands for accountability over deaths involving Dominican National Police officers have reignited across the country. Demonstrations intensified Sunday, with protesters pushing for full, transparent investigations into two additional suspicious deaths that families say are tied to uniformed officers.
In the city of San Cristóbal, demonstrators carried an empty coffin to the gates of the local police headquarters to draw attention to the death of Miguel Antonio Lucas Paredes. Concurrent with that action, relatives of both Paredes and 18-year-old Rawel Sierra gathered outside the Santo Domingo East Prosecutor’s Office to demand swift answers for their loved ones’ deaths, both of which the families attribute to police conduct.
According to Paredes’ family members, the 35-year-old was taken into custody last Wednesday, July 8, by a captain from the National Police’s Central Directorate of Intelligence (Dintel). The arrest, carried out on allegations of illegal lottery ticket sales in a San Cristóbal neighborhood, was conducted without a formal court warrant, the family claims. Following his arrest, Paredes was held for three days at the Sector 17 police detachment in San Cristóbal.
While in custody, Paredes told officers he was unwell after being beaten by personnel inside the detention facility, according to family accounts. He never received the requested medical care during his detention. When he was finally released to his relatives, Paredes was already in critical condition. He was immediately rushed to the Juan Pablo Pina Regional Teaching Hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
National Police spokesperson Diego Pesqueira has pushed back on the family’s narrative, stating that institutional investigations are ongoing and pending autopsy results to confirm an official cause of death. Pesqueira noted that preliminary internal accounts claim Paredes was arrested while engaging in illegal activity and was released before his health declined. The police spokesperson added that all investigative work is being conducted strictly in line with available evidence.
For the family of Rawel Sierra, the wait for justice has stretched to 25 days. Sierra, an 18-year-old living with autism, left his home in the Brisas del Este neighborhood of Santo Domingo East on a simple errand to buy a hamburger when he was killed by a bullet to the head. Family members say the fatal bullet was fired by a police officer during a street protest over widespread power outages in the area.
Carrying hand-painted banners emblazoned with the slogan “Police don’t kill me,” Sierra’s relatives joined Sunday’s demonstration to demand authorities immediately identify and prosecute the officer responsible for his death. The family told reporters they have grown frustrated with the lack of updates from investigative bodies, saying no concrete progress on the case has been shared with them nearly a month after the shooting.
The renewed demonstrations mark the second wave of public pressure on Dominican law enforcement and prosecutorial bodies in less than a month, as citizens push for systemic reform to address frequent allegations of excessive force and police misconduct across the country.