Two women, Conchi Lázaro, 32, and her partner Gema, 41, denounced a homophobic attack on the Warner Park facilities in Madrid on May 21. The family, from the Canary Islands, was on vacation in the capital and at six in the afternoon of the previous day, Saturday, a group of between 10 and 15 people threw them to the ground and beat them in front of their two children – aged five and six years ago― near the entrance to the compound and shouting “we’re going to go for you, you disgusting fucking dyke bitch!”, according to the complaint filed at a city police station, to which EL PAÍS has had access, and the story of the assaulted women.
“I closed my eyes and thought they were killing me,” says Lázaro by phone. Around 6:00 p.m., the couple and the two children, after spending the day in the park, went to the ticket office for their belongings, ready to have a quick snack and leave. “We had a couple of glasses and we left them on the floor. Then two women approach, to open the box office below ours. We don’t say anything, but when leaving, one of them kicks the glasses, ”she explains. The couple does not intervene and take the children to a nearby bank. They begin to have a snack and in a few minutes “about 10 or 15 people” are placed next to the family.
“They looked at us and began to provoke. ‘What are you looking at? Don’t look at!’ they shouted. We replied that we were not looking. I get up, turn my back on them and look at my partner”, continues Lázaro. The next thing he remembers, and which also reflects the complaint, is that a woman grabbed him by the neck while she said: “Fucking dyke!” “Gema didn’t even have time to tell me ‘be careful’, she dug her nails into me and I fell to the ground,” he recalls. Later, kicks, insults and blows all over the body: “I couldn’t see anything. nor where was Gema [a la que también habían tirado al suelo] nor the children. I tried to get up three times, but they wouldn’t let me.” After the first assault, the rest of the group joined in the beating, says Lázaro.
“No one helped us”
The couple recalls that the park was full, but that “no one helped them” or came to stop the attackers. “I got up as best I could and went to see the children. Then I ran to find someone from security. ‘Please, hold them back!’ I yelled, but they told me they couldn’t do it”, narrates Lázaro. She and Gema insist that “there was no security” at the time of the attack.
A park spokeswoman denies the couple’s version: “The staff did act. The Warner protocol is to call the Civil Guard, who appeared and took a statement. Lázaro confirms that the agents, after several calls, arrived at the premises, but that they only took the information of the two women who had started the beatings. The park published a statement on its Twitter profile on Thursday condemning the attack, where they reiterate that the security team did intervene and point out that “they are collaborating with the authorities in the investigation.” The Civil Guard has not prepared, for the moment, a statement on the event.
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In reference to the incident that occurred last Saturday at our facilities, we condemn the unfortunate behavior of a group of visitors. At Parque Warner, we denounce this type of behavior that goes against our values of diversity and family.
— Parque Warner Madrid (@ParqueWarner) May 25, 2023
Lázaro says that the attackers finally “left on a bus” and that they did not file a complaint at that moment due to nervousness and anxiety. An ambulance took the family to the Infanta Elena hospital ―in the municipality of Valdemoro and 14 kilometers from Warner‖ for a medical examination. The injury report, to which this newspaper has had access, states that both women had “multiple bruises” on the hip, chest, ribs, hands, knees and back, facial injuries and “mild head trauma.” “They tore our shirts and glasses, they stole a bracelet, they tore my clothes. Gema’s ear was bleeding,” recalls Lázaro five days later.
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