By David, on April 17th, 2010 Last night a 20 year old man was shot dead outside the front gate of my flat on Rua da Lapa, Rio.
Marju and I were woken at 6am by 8 to 10 massive gun shots resonating through our building. At first I tried to pass the noise off as fireworks, but clearly it wasn’t. Once the shooting had stopped, we lay silently in bed before nervously venturing to the window to see what was happening.
Everything seemed pretty normal with a few people strolling down the street and the light slowly creeping in over the airport, however, within a minute, from all three roads approaching the building came a stream of maybe 10 or 15 blue Rio Polícia Civil cars. One stopped just under our window. The Police got out, walked to the front of the building and started hunting around for something on the floor – presumably for a gun, bullets or used cartridges.
The light was really strong after only 10 minutes or so, and the police activity seemed to calm down, with the car outside driving away, so we went back to bed. Neither of us could sleep however, so around 9am, we got up and started to make some breakfast. As I reached the front door on my way to the shop for some bread, there he was, partially covered by a black bag, his legs giving away his identity as a wafer-thin young boy. Surrounding the body were 3 all-black homicide detective cars and a yellow policia civil van.
The police were questioning people but seemed not to be doing much. In the UK, after such an event, police would corden off a whole street and put up a big white tent – and there would be forensic activity all over the area. Not here. Small black bag partially covering a body and a piece of yellow ‘crime scene’ tape, limply drapped across the floor. I guess with statistics of over 2,000 murders a year in Rio – around 6 per day, who really has time for a thorough investigation, and who ever gets caught.
The security guy at our gate later told me the dead guy was 20, that he’d been shot behind the house (directly under our window), and had stumbled to the front where he’d collapsed. I asked if the Police caught the killers but couldn’t quite understand the answer. He told me a sentance including the word ‘bandido’ – which I think means he was a criminal – and seemed to suggest it was either the Police who shot him – which seems perhaps likely given their speed on the scene and apparent lack of investigation – or that it was someone he had pissed off who pulled the trigger. Either way, was death really the worthy punishment? I guess life really is cheap in this city.
(Picture – body being placed in back of van from my window)
Recent Comments: