The main suspect in the killing of Mexican education student Paola Bañuelos has been described as "violent and aggressive" by a top official, as a vigil was called to demand justice for her.
According to Baja California's prosecutor's office, Sergio Daniel N is a "violent and aggressive person, to the point of having attacked his own family members, among them his own mother. He has endangered his victims," said María Elena Andrade Ramírez, the Mexican state's attorney general. He is in pre-trial arrest and charged with the disappearance of Bañuelos. His next hearing has been set six months from July.
The 24-year-old man turned himself in this week following pressure from his aunt, who told him to surrender to authorities after learning he had taken a ride from the victim while working for Chinese app DiDi.
"People don't really know what happened. They have ideas, they send threats," he said before turning himself in to law enforcement. He then maintained his innocence and accused two people: a rapper who goes by Liriko Wan and a man called Jabob N.
A vigil will take place on Wednesday for Bañuelos. Organized by the Business Coordinating Council, it will take place in the city of Mexicali. The public has been invited to the Benito Juárez monument to pay their respects.
It is the latest of several demonstrations following her killing, suspected of being a femicide. After turning himself in, Sergio Daniel N said he initially fled the scene "out of fear."
As Sergio N remains behind bars, more information about past behavior while working for DiDi has began to surface. He harassed other female customers, Infobae reported. A woman who rode the car before Bañuelos said he insistently asked about her personal life, something that made her uncomfortable. He then tried to touch her but she managed to escape and get into her house. Another woman said she was driven by him earlier in July and that he offered alcohol in several occasions, making her feel uncomfortable enough to request the trip end before arriving to her destination.
Bañuelos' has garnered public attention in the country, where thousands of women are killed as a result of gender-based violence every year. Over 3,000 women were murdered last year alone, but activists claim that the figure is much higher and accused the outgoing government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (commonly known as AMLO) of downplaying statistics.
According to the UN Women, femicides, defined by the international body as an intentional killing with a gender-related motivation, accounts for 25% of the investigations into the killings of women and girls in Mexico.
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