Romanian who shot four people is euthanised in Spain

Marin Eugen Sabau, a Romanian man who became known as the "Gunslinger of Tarragona" after shooting and wounding three co-workers and a police officer last December, was euthanised in Spain, according to the Spanish media.

Sabau, 46, worked as a security guard at a company in Tarragona. After being dismissed, in December last year, he entered the offices of the security firm and opened fire, seriously injuring three of his former colleagues. He also wounded a police officer while trying to escape.

But he was also shot by the police during the attack, suffering irreversible spinal cord injury. Left paralysed and in chronic pain, he has reportedly asked to be allowed to die before the trial. "I am paraplegic. I have 45 stitches in my hand. I can't move my left arm well. I have screws, and I can't feel my chest," Sabau told the investigating judge, El Pais reported.

His victims opposed the man's euthanasia before trial, arguing he had to face justice for his crimes, but courts allowed his assisted death. A local court said it was his fundamental right to choose to end his life.

Spain legalised euthanasia in June 2021. According to El Pais, in the first year since the new regulation came into force, at least 172 people have ended their lives by this procedure in Spain.

(Photo source:Oleksii Synelnykov/Dreamstime.com)