Cook loses part of her vision after being attacked at a show in the Pelourinho
Case occurred during the show of a popular Carnaval musical/social group in Salvador, Bahia, on January 22nd. Victim says assault was made by a Military Police officer during a melee.
A 34-year old cook lost her the vision in her left eye after being assaulted during a show of the Bloco Afro, Olodum, on January 22 in the historic Pelourinho district of Salvador, Bahia in Brazil’s northeast.
She reported that the violence was perpetrated by military police who were on duty at the event. “Suddenly, three cops of a police patrol popped up. They grabbed a friend of mine and after the confusion ended I realized that I got hit and passed out; I only came to at the hospital,” said the victim.
The cook was initially treated at the Hospital Geral do Estado (HE – State General Hospital), where she remained from January 22nd to 24th, when she was transferred to the Hospital do Subúrbio (Suburban Hospital) to undergo surgery. She said she was diagnosed with a broken facial bone, eyeball and eyelids but that the vision in her left eye had yet to return.
The victim was discharged from the facility on January 26th and is recovering at home. “I have four stitches in my left eyelid and it’s hard to see with my right eye. I work in a buffet, over an industrial oven, and I’m away right now; I don’t know how it will go, if I’ll be able to go back. I have a 12 year old son that depends on me for everything,” she says.
The victim says that she filed a complaint at the 1st precinct police station located in the neighborhood of Barris, where she also endured a forensic examination on Friday (27th).
Unseen footage taken by an amateur videographer, who declined to be identified, show that the victim was with a group of friends when confusion began in the area which led to the intervention of the military police. One of them hit the victim’s face with a nightstick. Her sister tried desperately to help her and got help from people in the crowd to remove the victim from the site of the confusion.
The military police reported that 150 agents were working at the time and that an investigation will be opened involving the case. “We will effectively verify the military policeman who committed this possible infraction and, once identified, we will open an administrative disciplinary proceeding through our internal affairs. The military policeman, the identified accused, will be punished by the military police and he could get fired from the department,” says the coordinator of Planning Operations of the 18th Battalion, Adilson Santana.
See video of the incident below.
Report in Portuguese is a basic description similar to what is written above.
Source: Black Women of Brazil
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