According to TV Garzón director Rulfo Ciceri, Medina, 19, had traveled to Gigante with him and a few other journalists to cover the attack. In order to reach the scene more quickly, Medina then jumped on the back of a motorcycle with a commander from the National Judicial Intelligence Service (SIJIN). The FARC guerrillas apparently mistook him for a member of the SIJIN forces.
Ciceri told CPJ that a commander of the FARC apologized to him for the error, explaining that they mistook Medina for a mosca, or "fly," a pejorative term for a police informer.