As Prats' car was at a busy intersection in Las Condes, a then-quiet upper-class suburb of Santiago, a small red Renault car pulled up next to the general and two people (two men as he described them later) inside the car started laughing, mocking him and making obscene gestures. The general asked his driver to hand him his handgun. The minister opened his side window and, pointing at the red car, ordered the driver to stop. Since the other driver ignored him, the general waved his sidearm, demanding an apology at gunpoint. As none was forthcoming, he shot the red car in its left front fender.