Man Sets Street Dweller on Fire in São Paulo

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – Security camera footage shows a man approaching a street dweller while he was sleeping and setting fire to the victim during the early hours of Sunday morning, January 5th, in the Mooca neighborhood in São Paulo.

Carlos Silva, 39, had 70 percent of his body burned and is in a serious condition at the Intensive Care Unit of the Tatuapé Municipal Hospital. The police are looking for the criminal.

The video shows a man dressed in black making a small fire near where the resident slept with his cart. The man then throws what appears to be fuel, which causes an explosion. Next, the perpetrator flees. At the scene, a gallon of gasoline was found.

Two people passing the scene in a car stop to help the man on fire. Another man also runs to help extinguish the flames from the street dweller’s body.

Silva was rescued by the fire department with second and third-degree burns to the legs, back, chest, and face.

For the police, the fire was criminal because a gallon of gasoline was found at the scene. The container was seized and will pass through forensics at the Institute of Criminalistics of the Technical and Scientific Police.

The police are investigating the case and are looking for more footage to help clarify the case.

According to the police report, the resident could not inform how he suffered the burns since the fire was started while he was sleeping near the road, under a marquee in front of a supermarket. The marks on the wall show that the flames reached 4 meters high.

Source: G1