decided to go home with his two daughters, Karla y Kerlyy. His companion, Mercedes Salazar, remained at the request of her relatives. Thirty minutes later Mercedes, concerned about Wilson, decided to leave as well and her brother-in-law, Walter, offered to drive her home, borrowing a Datsun taxi from William Huacón, Walter and Wilson’s first cousin. 7. According to the petition, Walter drove the taxi along the Perimetral Avenue, advancing some 200 meters, when, spotting a police check-point of the Transit Commission that was requesting documents, Walter, realizing that he did not have them with him, made a U turn to return to the house, going down the street the wrong way. The police, sirens blazing, gave chase because the taxi was going the wrong way down a one-way street. 8. Four more police officers, belonging to the motorized squadron of the National Police, joined in the chase on two motorcycles, and someone began to shoot and hit Mercedes, who was in the back seat, in the neck. Walter passed by his house and yelled at his wife to bring out the documents, and his wife, Mery, ran inside to get his papers. The policemen were later identified as José Carbo Bajaña and Carlos Mosquera, on one of the motorcycles and Victor Ramos and Julio Torres on the second motorcycle, and Pedro Espinoza and Bolivar Ramirez in the Transmit Commission patrol. 9. When the taxi was stopped, Walter got out of the taxi with his hands in the air and, according to the petitioners, police officer Carbo shot him in the leg and he fell back into the taxi. Then he pointed his gun through the back window of the car and shot two more times at the level of Mercedes’ heart, killing her, although her body was inert and quite possibly she was already dead. When Mery came running with the documents she begged the police not to kill Walter, that he wasn’t a thief, but she was thrown to the ground by a swift push by police officer Carbo, who warned her to get out of the way or else she would be killed. Carbo then put the gun to Walter’s chin and shot again, killing him. The police did not assist the victims and fled from the site. Not one of the armed agents of the State reported the incident to his superiors. 10. Neither Walter nor Mercedes had a criminal record. Walter was a small businessman, and a volunteer in the Civil Defense forces, while Mercedes was a housewife. None of the armed agents reported the crime to any authority. In addition, the four men later met and washed the residue of powder off their weapons, pretending that the assassination of Walter Huacón and Mercedes Salazar never occurred. 11. Proceedings were initiated immediately in the ordinary criminal courts, but were transferred to the special police court. On March 16, 2000, the Second Court of the IV District of the National Police, outside the ordinary criminal justice system, dismissed the charges of simple homicide set forth in Article 224 of the Penal Code of the National Police against five of the police officers implicated in the crime, and only the charges against José Carbo Bajaña were affirmed and his case recommended for trial. The charges against the other police officers were provisionally dismissed. The petitioners charges that Article 451 of the Criminal Code should have been applied to all six police officers who were implicated in the crime and that they should have been tried before an ordinary criminal court and not before a special police court. Article 451 of the Criminal Code provides that “when two or more persons participate in a robbery or other crime, all will be responsible for the assassination that may be committed; unless it is proven who committed the crime and that the others had no part in it and could not prevent it.” On November 30, 2000 the Second District Police Court on appeal, confirmed the decision of the lower court to dismiss the charges against the other police officers and on November 9, 2