“This has shaken something up, it has been a kind of collective wakeup call in which very young people are saying that they are not going to accept any more, that they are not going to tolerate another assault,” says José María Núñez, the president of the NGO Triángulo Foundation, which defends the rights of LGBTQ+ people. It is a trigger in the same way the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin in the United States sparked the Black Lives Matter movement, or the murder of Ana Orantes – who was burned alive by her ex-husband just days after denouncing his abuse on a television program – provoked a national reckoning about gender violence in Spain. According to several leaders of these associations, his murder marks a before and after moment for the LGBTQ+ movement. Indeed, Luiz has become a symbol of the LGBTQ+ movement’s fight for basic rights – such as the right to walk home safely without being assaulted, harassed or insulted. Flowers and messages left at the spot where Samuel Luiz was killed. González, however, is convinced that the murder was motivated by homophobia – given Luiz was gay – and LGBTQ+ groups across Spain agree. Officers believe the attack was triggered by a misunderstanding: one of Luiz’s assailants believed that he was recording him when he was on the video call. Police are still investigating the killing of the 24-year-old nurse – three people have so far been sent to prison and another two are in a juvenile center. I only heard ‘please, please,’ but they kept going and going and going.” “He was very thin, he didn’t trouble anyone. “I can’t explain it, no one can explain it,” González told EL PAÍS on Thursday, the day after giving her statement to police. She was still on the line when Luiz was attacked, and listened as Lina described in disjointed snatches what was happening – from the first punch to when he was brutally kicked to death by up to seven people. The friends told González that they were having a good time and that she had to join them the next time they went out. The time was 2.45am and they were on the seaside promenade of A Coruña, a city in Spain’s northwestern region of Galicia.
Just before Samuel Luiz was brutally beaten to death on July 3, he and his friend Lina made a video call to Vanessa González.