the school to assess the situation, and amid the shooting, they demanded that the police cease fire: "Lay down your weapons, inside there is only children eating." According to witnesses and the investigation conducted later by the Internal Affairs Department of the police, a patrol car belonging to the Radioelectrical Command of Arroyo Seco stopped by the school, and two police agents got off and fired at the roof. One of them, Ernesto Esteban Velázquez, killed Lepratti. A shotgun blast had torn through his trachea. Lepratti was quickly taken to the Roque Sáenz Peña Hospital but died before arriving there. The repression of protests took four casualties in Rosario that day. On 20 December, amid violent demonstrations, looting and riots in the major Argentine cities, President De la Rúa resigned. Murder investigation A Non-Governmental Investigative Commission was assembled in July 2002 to bring light on the alleged murders committed by the police in Santa Fe. It was determined that a substantial coverup had taken place. On Lepratti's case, a witness claimed that she had filed a denunciation of shooting in a police station, but the personnel had refused to take it in writing. The records of the police station stated that Lepratti had died in an exchange of fire. The time, the jurisdiction of the station, and the witness retelling of the situation later in court did not match. Furthermore, the police car showed two bullet impacts which could not have been made from the roof of the school, but appeared to have been done later to match the police version. Finally, the police made up a charge of resistance to authority on the part of Lepratti. Based on the coincidence between the bullet types, and following the testimony of the two witnesses, officer E. E. Velázquez was indicted by judge Osvaldo Barbero. Velézquez first claimed that the shots that killed Lepratti were done before he and his companion, sergeant Rubén Darío Pérez, left their vehicle. Then he changed his statement, claiming he had only shot upwards into the air. The forged police records claimed that the patrol car had been shot at by unknown attackers, who had escaped after dissuasive fire. Nine officers were indicted for the alteration of the records, but they refused to speak. One of these, sergeant Jorge Alberto Orué, eventually caved in. Before a judge, he declared that Velázquez was already aware that Lepratti was