Eugen S., known as the Tarragona gunman, died this Tuesday, as planned, after being euthanized. This is the first case of a prisoner exercising the right to assisted death in Spain. Eugen S., 45, remained in a prison module of a health center in Terrassa, due to serious injuries resulting from the shooting with the Mossos d’Esquadra before being arrested.
The case of the so-called ‘Tarragona gunman’ was controversial because the prisoner demanded access to euthanasia immediately, given his medical situation, and before the trial was held. For this reason, the courts had to resolve for the first time the collision between his right to assisted death or the holding of criminal proceedings.
The accusation in the judicial procedure demanded that Eugen S. be tried before, but the courts, both in Spain and in the European instance, ended up agreeing with the defense and authorizing euthanasia. The judge, however, denied him to remain free one day before his death, as he had also claimed.
Last December, Eugen S. opened fire inside a security company located in the center of Tarragona and caused serious injuries to three former colleagues. In his flight, he wounded a plainclothes constable. The gunman barricaded himself in an abandoned farmhouse and given his refusal to talk to the police, the Mossos Special Intervention Group shot him down and arrested him. Earlier the gunman had also shot at the officers.
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