Four police officers accused of a massacre in Argentina when four young people died when they collided with a vehicle during a police pursuit have been found guilty of murder.

The four cops were voted guilty for the so-called ‘Monte Massacre’ by a people’s jury during a court hearing in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 17th May.

The deadly event took place at dawn on 20th May, 2019, when the four police officers from the local police station chased a Fiat 147 in which the four teenagers were travelling around the town of San Miguel del Monte.

The five boys were listening to music when the officers began to chase them, apparently for no reason, and began shooting at them.

The driver, 22-year-old Anibal Suarez – who was the only adult in the group – accelerated to flee, lost control of the car and crashed into a parked truck.

The driver and three of the occupants of the car – later identified as Danilo Sansone, 13, Camila Lopez, 13, and Gonzalo Dominguez, 14, died on the spot.

The only survivor was then-13-year-old Rocio Quagliarello, a high school classmate of the deceased and a key witness in the trial.

Accused Ruben Garcia and Leonardo Ecilape were unanimously found guilty for of “aggravated homicide due to abuse of their police function and use of a firearm” for the death of the four teens.

For their crime, the jury proposed a life imprisonment.

The other two accused cops – Manuel Monreal and Mariano Ibanez – were convicted by a majority of 10 votes out of 12 for the crime of “attempted homicide aggravated by the use of a firearm and abuse of their police function.”

Monreal and Ibanez could be facing anywhere between 18 to 25 years in prison.

The final sentence will be handed down by judge Carolina Crispiani during a hearing scheduled for 2nd June.

During the hearing, the plaintiff lawyers representing the families of the victims claimed that the deadly incident was a “brutal homicide” and an “unjustified killing”.

Prosecutor Mariano Sibuet told the jury: “They were innocent kids, good people, they had no reason to be in a dangerous circumstance.

“They went for a ride, the same as all the people of Monte do.

“They began to persecute them without there being a reason or suspicion that warrants it.”

The prosecutor requested that the four police officers be sentenced so that “these events never happen again.”

He further assured that the driver lost control of the vehicle due to “the number of shots, the speed and insistence of that pursuit”.

One of the harshest stories heard during the trial was that of the survivor, now 17 years old.

Quagliarello recounted that they began to chase them “out of nowhere” and shoot and suddenly one of his friends grabbed his knee and yelled “it burns me, it burns me”.

It was Gonzalo Dominguez, who was shot in the thigh minutes before dying from the serious collision of the vehicle, which was destroyed.

But the defendants maintained their innocence and blamed Anibal, the driver of the Fiat 147 in which the victims were travelling, as being responsible for the events.

They claimed that they acted “in the line of duty”.

They were accused of showing no remorse and had allegedly tried to pass off the incident as an inevitable tragedy when it was first made public.

In their first version, they reportedly described the victims as suspects who resisted arrest and were not shot at.

Forensics, however, found the bullet in Dominguez’s thigh, and at least three bullet holes in the few unbroken pieces of the car that remained after the crash.

The supposed “criminals” turned out to be young people known to all and with no criminal record who had tried to flee from the shots, terrified.

During the trial, security camera footage was also shown that contradicted the police version.

Popular support for families was felt during the hearing, as locals stood outside the gates of the court with large banners saying:”Justice for the kids of Monte. It was a massacre, the State is responsible”.

“Trial and punishment”, requested another in which the faces and names of the four deceased were printed.

Victim Gonzalo Dominguez’s mother, Susana Rios, said that she feels “very proud of the jury”.

She said she had a lot of faith, she believed the victims would be given justice, and “that’s how it [ultimately] was”.