fellow politician and a physician. On their way out, the group was surprised by a lone gunman who fired several times at Gaitán from the front. Gaitán fell to the ground. Suspect The man suspected of killing Gaitán ran away heading south and pursued by an angry crowd. A policeman, Carlos Alberto Jiménez Díaz, tried to control the situation. According to police reports, the man surrendered to Jiménez, calling:"Mi cabo, no deje que me maten" (My corporal, don't let them kill me)In an attempt to avoid the mob, Jiménez locked himself and his prisoner in the nearby Granada drugstore. Some witnesses subsequently interviewed by local newspapers (El Tiempo and El Espectador, issues from April to May, same year) claimed that the man who was taken into the drugstore was not the same one who was captured, and that in the confusion Officer Jiménez was mistaken because the other man was also wearing a gray hat. According to the drugstore owner, when he asked the prisoner why he had killed Gaitán, he replied:"¡Ay Señor, cosas poderosas! ¡Ay, Virgen del Carmen, sálvame!" (Oh Lord, powerful things! Oh Virgin of Carmen, save me!)After that, the doors were charged and the man was taken by the mob. His naked corpse was found later, in the Bolívar Square, outside the Presidential Palace. His face was crushed with a brick, and his body was mutilated. A bystander, Gabriel Restrepo, collected the remains of his clothes and found some personal documents, which identified him as 26-year-old Juan Roa Sierra. There have been a number of theories concerning Gaitán's murder, some claiming that the assassination was planned and undertaken by other persons in addition to Juan Roa Sierra; or that the latter was not the real killer. Roa Sierra was born into a poor family. There was a history of mental illness amongst Roa Sierra's brothers, and he may himself have been unstable. He was seen often in Gaitán's office asking for a job, since he was unemployed, but Gaitán had never received him. Some people who knew Roa Sierra stated that he never learned to shoot a gun, although Gaitán's assassin had fired accurate shots. Evidence shows that the gun used to kill Gaitán was sold two days before the crime, which does not provide enough time for Roa Sierra to learn to use a gun. So, it has been theorized that the crime was planned for