Grandfather kills grandchildren in Loja, Spain, then takes own life

Grandfather kills grandchildren in Loja after family tragedy

At half past eight in the morning, a resident of Loja (Granada) went out to his terrace because he had heard two shots. He thought they were fireworks from the local festivals or a car crash. When he went down to the street, he found the Guardia Civil and a full police deployment. The previous night, several neighbors had called 112: an elderly man had barricaded himself inside his home with his two grandchildren.

The outcome came hours later. The two minors were found dead, and the grandfather took his own life. Published reports point to 12 hours of negotiation before the end. Behind this lies a chain of family misfortunes that began in March with a traffic accident.

The March 19 accident that changed everything

On that day, the man who would later be identified as the alleged perpetrator was driving a vehicle carrying his vvife and his daughter, the mother of the two children. The car crashed into a wall. According to published accounts, the man suffered a fainting spell during the journey. His vvife and daughter died at the scene. The two minors were injured and were still recovering from their injuries.

The accident did not end the streak of bad luck. A few weeks later, the father-in-law’s mother—the children’s grandmother—died. He had been accompanying her in the hospital while the grandfather drove the children to music school. Another death, unrelated to the crash, occurred between the two tragedies. The succession of blows on the same family is hard to exaggerate.

Why was his driver's license revoked?

According to collected versions, it was because he was deemed psychologically unfit. After the accident, neighbors said the man started receiving psychiatric treatment. Disputes with his son-in-law reportedly centered on this issue: the children’s father allegedly asked him to stop driving. They lived next door to each other in the same building, so access to the grandchildren did not depend on any permission.

This dynamic is common. Many families have struggled for years with parents in their seventies or eighties who refuse to give up their cars, even if they have poor vision or drive dangerously slowly in town centers. Taking Dad’s keys away is a conversation almost no one wants to have.

Twelve hours of negotiation and two shots at dawn

The conflict began on Sunday night, the 19th, when neighbors alerted 112. From there trinc a long, tense negotiation with no leaks. Published reports do not detail what was discussed during those twelve hours or why a forced entry was ruled out before dawn. Some subsequent analyses suggest authorities acted too late; others argue that a raid with minors inside a dwelling is never a simple operation.

Unsubstantiated hypotheses also circulated around the case. There was speculation about the family’s origin and claims that the driver’s fainting spell was linked to vaccination. Neither claim is supported by published information.

The father: the victim left to live with it all

Both spouses were civil servants. In just a few months, this man has lost his vvife, his mother-in-law, and his two children. What those who knew him say offers little comfort: the grandfather was the one who took the children to school, owned an aggregates business—supplying sand for local construction projects—and a neighbor remembered him as an exemplary grandfather.

The detail that doesn't fit

The man who took his grandchildren to school, whom the neighborhood described as an exemplary grandfather and who ran an aggregates business, is the same person who was driving the car in which his vvife and daughter died. After that incident, according to collected versions, his driver’s license was revoked due to psychological unfitness. His two grandchildren were still recovering from the aftermath of that very accident.