Just before Samuel Luiz was brutally beaten to death on July 3, he and his friend Lina made a video call to Vanessa González. The time was 2.45am and they were on the seaside promenade of A Coruña, a city in Spain’s northwestern region of Galicia. The friends told González that they were having a good time and that she had to join them the next time they went out. 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. “I can’t explain it, no one can explain it,” González told EL PAÍS on Thursday, the day after giving her statement to police. “He was very thin, he didn’t trouble anyone. He had never been assaulted by anyone. I only heard [him saying] ‘please, please,’ but they kept going and going and going.