Note from BBT: Yet another tragedy in Rio. It is apparent from the data that even being a child doesn’t protect anyone from being shot and killed. Rio de Janeiro’s reality is such a far cry from the postcard image that it presents to the world. In a period of just 15 days in which the outcry over the murder of 40-year old João Alberto Freitas by security agents in a supercenter garage in Porto Alegre had begun to die down slightly, comes two more totally unnecessary deaths. This time and again, two small children. Two small black children and this is absolutely necessary to say as it seems that it is always black children/people who seem to be on the receiving end of stray bullets.
It’s a shame to say, but unfortunately, the details of this latest interruption of life reads similar to the numerous other reports that I have featured on this blog. Police say there was shootout, most often with drug traffickers and that it wasn’t their bullets that struck down the victims but residents say otherwise. According to the families of the victims in this case, 4-year old Emilly and 7-year old Rebeca, Military Police took shots at criminal suspects as they patrolled the streets.
According to police, its battalion was patrolling the region when it heard the shots and went to the scene to investigate the situation. Usually when I hear these conflicting reports, I tend to believe the residents for several reasons. In this case, one other thing makes me again lean toward believing what residents said. If what one witness said is to believed, the police didn’t even bother to help the little victims. And just like that, two more black children were buried on Saturday after their lives were ended violently.
Two black girls, Emily, 4 and Rebeca, 7, killed by gunfire in Rio; Military Police claim no responsibility, residents say otherwise
According to a local resident’s report in Duque de Caxias, the cousins were playing together close to their mothers when police shot two suspects.
Two girls, aged 4 and 7, were shot after gunshots went off on Friday (4) in Duque de Caxias, Rio de Janeiro. Despite the fact that a resident said that the projectiles came from police officers, the State Military Police (PM) states that it didn’t fire any shots in the operation.
The two children are cousins Emily Victória Silva dos Santos, 4 years old, and Rebeca Beatriz Rodrigues dos Santos, 7 years old. The girls were hit as they awaited their grandmother to buy a snack.
They were victims of stray bullets when playing at the door of their homes near their mothers, on Friday night (4), in Barro Vermelho, in the Duque de Caxias region of Rio. The tragedy happened around 8 pm.
In 2020, the Fogo Cruzado platform already registered 22 children shot in the Metropolitan Region of Rio. Of these, eight of them died.
The State Military Police issued a statement that a team from the 15th BPM was on patrol on Rua Lauro Sodré, at the height of the Sapinho community, when gunshots were heard.
According to the corporation’s statement, “there were no shots by the military police.” In a note to the press, Military Police representatives said “There were no shots by the military police. The team moved on. Subsequently, the battalion was called in to check the entry of two wounded people at the UPA Caxias II (Sarapuí).
The PM also informs that it learned of the entry of two injured people in the UPA Caxias II (Sarapuí). “On the spot, the fact was verified and they were two children”.
The department also said that the Homicide Police of Baixada Fluminense will investigate the deaths of Rebecca and Emilly. The DHBF (Homicide Division of the Baixada Fluminense) decided to seize five rifles and five pistols for ballistic confrontation. The five Military Police soldiers have also been heard . This week, researchers want to hear from the family of the two children.
According to a resident of the street where it all happened, the two girls were shot around 8:40 pm, when they were playing in front of the door, near their mothers.
She also reported that police officers from the Duque de Caxias battalion shot three suspects on motorbikes three times and passed by close to the children.
The resident also says that the police didn’t help the girls, who arrived dead at the state UPA in Sarapui,
According to the girls’ cousin, Rebeca was shot in the chest and Emily Victoria, who would turn five on December 23, was struck in the head. According to family members, the same shot struck hit Rebecca’s abdomen.
The bodies were taken to the Duque de Caxias IML.
According to the family’s version, a Military Police (MP) car, which passed by the street of the house where the girls lived, would have stopped and, for no apparent reason, one of the policemen fired several shots, from inside the vehicle, in the direction in which the cousins were. The children’s relatives don’t know whether the MPs were chasing someone, but they guarantee that the shots came from one of the corporation’s agents.
The next morning, when releasing the bodies of Rebecca and Emilly, at the Instituto Médico Legal (IML) in Duque de Caxias, Ana Lúcia Alves de Souza, a cousin of the two, called for justice and demanded that the police involved in the episode be held responsible. “What preparation is this that the police can’t distinguish between an adult and a child? There was no exchange of fire. They were not even careful to look for the direction in which they could hit. They just fired, it causes us a lot of indignation,” she said, in an interview.
She stated that the two children were “sweet and dear to everyone in the neighborhood” and that the family is devastated. “We go out to work, to contribute to this murderous government and that’s what they give us back: they kill our children, our future. This has to end, this has to stop. How long are they going to kill innocent people?”she asked. “Emilly was shot in the head by a rifle. What did she do to deserve a rifle shot in the head? This causes us a lot of revolt. We know that nothing will happen, but I want everyone to know what happened. I want to know what they are going to say about a child of 7 and another 4. What is the justification?”
Lídia Santos, Rebeca’s grandmother, said she was coming home from work when the crime happened. The girls were waiting for her on the sidewalk to buy a snack when a police car passed by around 8 pm. Family members said they didn’t know if there was any kind of chase, but that they only saw the police shooting.
The family’s pain was even greater because Emilly would be 5 on the next 23rd and was to have her first birthday party in her life, which would be inspired by Disney’s Moana cartoons, one of her favorites. The girl was very excited for the celebration, especially because she would wear a character outfit, which had already been purchased by her father.
As a way of paying homage to the girl for the last time, the family members decided to bury her in the Moana cartoon. Emilly and Rebecca’s farewell happened yesterday afternoon, at the Nossa Senhora das Graças Cemetery, in Duque de Caxias, in a ceremony that brought together about 200 people.
Emilly’s father and Rebecca’s uncle, Alexsandro dos Santos couldn’t control hold back their emotion. He passed out during the burial and received support from relatives, but refused to leave the place. Crying, he closed the girls’ grave and vented. “We are burying another victim of violence in our community. Two children. My daughter and my niece. There are the governors who just want to make money on the backs of others. I am burying my daughter, who has not lived at all.”
22 children have been shot in Rio in 2020
With the deaths of Emily and Rebeca in Duque de Caxias (RJ) on Friday night (12/04), the number of children hit by stray bullets in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro reaches 22; of these, 8 died.
The figures are given by the Fogo Cruzado platform, which monitors data on armed violence in Rio de Janeiro. As the platform takes into account victims up to the age of 12, the death of the teenager João Pedro Mattos Pinto, 14, was not counted. The teenager died during a police operation inside the home of relatives.
According to the Fogo Cruzado platform, of the 22 children shot this year in the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro, eight of them died, the children being killed all black. See in the gallery:
Children struck by bullets in Rio de Janeiro in 2020
January 10: Anna Carolina de Souza Neves, 8 years old; Killed by stray bullet on the couch indoors, in Belford Roxo
January 19: Unidentified boy, 11 years old: Hit by stray bullet in Complexo do Alemão in Rio de Janeiro
January 23: Victor Pietro, 8 years old; Hit by stray bullet in Jardim América, in Rio de Janeiro
January 27: Arthur Gonçalves Monteiro, 5 years old; Struck by stray bullet in Engenho Novo
February 5: Nicole Mariah Carvalho, 3 years old; Struck by stray bullet in Bangu
February 10: Unidentified girl, 9 years old; Hit by stray bullet in Duque de Caxias
February 15: Raphael Barra Pereira do Nascimento, 6 years old; Hit by stray bullet in São Gonçalo
February 15: Ketiley Cristine da Silva, 11, and Gabriel Barbosa, 5; Hit by stray bullet in Pilares
March 6: Unidentified girl, 4 years old; Hit by stray bullet in São Gonçalo
March 23: Maria Eduarda Pereira da Costa, 8 years old; Killed by stray bullet in Belford Roxo
April 2: Adrelany Pacheco de Lima, 3 years old; Hit by stray bullet in São Gonçalo
June 7: Douglas Enzo Maia dos Santos Marinho, 4 years old; Shot dead during his own birthday party in Magé
June 25: Kauã Vitor da Silva, 11 years old; Killed with a shot in the head in Complexo da Maré, north of Rio de Janeiro
June 28: Rayane Lopes, 10 years old; Killed by a bullet during the festa juninha party. Her father also died when he tried to protect the girl in Anchieta, in the north of Rio de Janeiro
June 30: Ítalo Augusto de Castro Amorim, 7 years old; Killed by a stray bullet outside his home in São João de Meriti
August 28: Kaio de Souza, 8 years old; Hit by stray bullet in Guapimirim
September 14: Maria Pétala Arandiba Moreira, 3 years old; Hit by stray bullet in Duque de Caxias
September 16: Unidentified boy, 7 years old; Hit by stray bullet in Nova Iguaçu
December 4: Emily Victoria Silva dos Santos, 4, and Rebeca Beatriz Rodrigues dos Santos, 7; Killed at the front door, in Duque de Caxias
Source: Plataforma Fogo Cruzado
Cousins buried together
Emilly and Rebeca were buried together. The burial, which took place at Cemitério Nossa Senhora das Graças on Saturday afternoon (12/5)
Emilly’s father, Alexsandro dos Santos, passed out and had to be supported. It was he who closed the tomb of his own daughter and that of Rebeca, his niece.
Source: R7, Correio Braziliense, Correio do Povo, Metropoles, Metropoles (2)
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