Rio Police Fail to Find Perpetrators of All Five Children Killed by Stray Bullets This Year

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Civil Police have failed to determine who was responsible for the killing of four children this year before the case of 8-year-old Ágatha Vitória Sales Félix.

According to data from the Secretary of State of the Civil Police, 11-year-old Jenifer Cilene Gomes, who died in February, the oldest unsolved case of the five, was shot during an exchange of gunshots between “rival faction traffickers” in a community in the Triagem neighborhood. Police reported that “so far,” there is no evidence of police involvement.

Jenifer was at the door of the family’s bar in Triagem when she was shot by a stray bullet. At the time, the girl’s relatives accused state police officers. In 2012, two of Jenifer’s brothers had already been murdered at a funk party.

The second case this year occurred on March 16th. The victim was 12-year-old Kauan Peixoto, who was shot while leaving the Chatuba community in Mesquita, in the Baixada Fluminense, to buy a snack, according to the boy’s family. According to witnesses, there was a police operation going on at the time he was shot. Despite being assisted, the boy died at the Nova Iguaçu General Hospital.

The investigation into the death of 11-year-old Kauã Rozário is also underway, according to police. The third child victim of a stray bullet was shot in May during a clash between state police and drug traffickers in Bangu. He was hospitalized for a week at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Realengo when brain death was confirmed.

Finally, in September, 12-year-old Kauê Ribeiro dos Santos was shot in the head on the Camboatá Highway in the Chapadão Complex, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro. At the time, the State Police accused the boy of shooting at the police. The family challenged this. The case was classified as a death due to police activity, that is, resisting arrest.

Kauê’s aunt, Nádia Santos, is demanding an expert investigation into the weapons of the state police officers involved in the operation in the favela, the day the boy was shot:

“The State Police always claim to be victims. So, [let them] prove they are telling the truth. Surrendering their weapons for expert examination is enough. We want a report, a technical proof. To do so, the Civil Police has to investigate, because witnesses are not enough. Who in the community will testify? Everyone is afraid [of the police].”

During a press conference on Monday afternoon regarding Ághata’s case, Governor Wilson Witzel said that the police will not stop investigating the case, irrespective of the perpetrator of the crime.

“I have no pet criminal. Whether he is wearing a badge or a uniform. The law applies to everyone. No one is above or below the law. In terms of the investigation, all of them are ongoing. There is no such thing as a stalled investigation,” said Witzel.

Public defender Daniel Lozoya, of the Center for Human Rights of the Public Defender’s Office of the State of Rio de Janeiro, said the lack of police investigation, particularly in cases classified as resisting arrest, are historical and chronic in Rio.

He recalls that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of the OAS (Organization of American States) has condemned Brazil for the failure to investigate and punish those responsible for 26 deaths during police operations in the incidents known as the Nova Brasília massacres, which occurred in 1994 and 1995.