the Security and Public Order Corps of the State of Aragua, headquartered in the city of Turmero, identified as Gerardo Alcides Castillo Freites and Andrés José Castillo García, got out of their van without identifying themselves and "with gun in hand and a threatening attitude" told the alleged victim that he was under arrest because "otherwise he would be killed for accounts pending before the courts". 17. The petitioners maintain that Mr. Igmar Alexander Landaeta Mejías decided to run away, and that the police officers shot him in the back and subsequently, as he lay on the pavement, Officer Gerardo Alcides Castillo Freites kicked him over and shot him in the face. The two officers then transported the victim to the Ambulatorio II hospital of the city of Turmero, where he was recorded as showing no vital signs. 18. Subsequent to this date, the then Technical Corps of the Judicial Police (now the Scientific, Penal and Criminal Investigations Corps) of the zone opened an investigation, in which it performed fraudulent tests such as an analysis of gunpowder traces on both hands of the deceased victim, which produced a positive result. The petitioners argue that this test was tainted because it was performed by the same officers who took Mr. Landaeta to the medical center, and that they would have had the opportunity to place a weapon in his hand and fire it so that the investigation would find gunpowder on his hands. 19. The petitioners argue that the Technical Corps of the Judicial Police committed the following irregularities: it did not reconstruct the events; it took no steps to have the accused officers identified by witnesses; it failed to conduct a gunpowder test on the two officers; it did not perform a ballistics comparison of the weapons carried by the police; the scene was measured off using information provided by the officers themselves; it did not investigate the origin of the vehicle in which they were traveling; it did not request a certified copy of the journal kept by the Turmero police headquarters to determine whether the officers were on duty at the time of the events; it requested no information from the General Command of the Police of Aragua on the duties assigned to the officers, their record of conduct and their criminal records; it did not ask for the police record of a witness who, because of "debts outstanding with the justice system," may have been pressured by the officers to declare that the alleged victim had assaulted him with a firearm; it did not question the owner of the truck in which Mr. Landaeta allegedly hid in his flight; it failed to investigate the origin of the weapon that the victim was allegedly carrying; it conducted no ballistics comparison of the bullet found near Mr. Landaeta's body; no photographs were taken of the wall struck by the police bullets; no record was kept of the place where a reddish-brown substance was found nor was a blood test performed there; and there was no ballistics examination of the weapons carried by the officers. 20. With respect to the actions of the judiciary, the petitioners reported that, once the investigations were concluded, the records were turned over to the Ninth Public Prosecution Office of the Judicial District of the State of Aragua, which on November 27, 1996 sent the case on to the corresponding court and asked it to initiate a “nudo hecho” information procedure (intended to demonstrate the link between the alleged offense and a public official) against Gerardo Alcides Castillo Freites and Andrés José Castillo García. That court returned the case to the same prosecution office on January 16, 1997, which again brought it to the attention of the court on February 24, 1997, accompanied by charges against those police officers for the crime of premeditated murder and improper use of firearms. 21. With regard to this issue, the petitioners argued that the representative of the Attorney General's office incurred in with grave remiss in failing to consider the offenses of abuse of authority, simulation of a punishable act, and "taking justice into his own hands", as defined in articles 204, 240 and 271 of the then-valid Penal Code. 22. According to the petitioners, the Sixth Criminal Judge, on October 1, 1997 confirmed a previous decision of the municipal judge of San Mariño and Libertador, terminating the summary inquiry. On October 10, 1997 the case was sent for consultation to the Third Superior Criminal Judge of the same district, who on October 11, 1997 revoked the previous decision and ordered 3