Protests Sweep Brazilian City As Man Dies After Held in Police Car Filled With Unknown Gas
07:47 GMT 28.05.2022 (Updated: 10:16 GMT 28.05.2022)
© Photo : Twitter screenshot
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Federal Highway Police from the Brazilian state of Sergipe said in a statement that the man, Genivaldo de Jesus Santos, "actively resisted" an officer's approach with "aggression" and police had to use "immobilisation techniques and instruments of lower offensive potential" to contain him.
The death of a man in police custody triggered demonstrations in the Brazilian city of Umbauba in the state of Sergipe on Thursday. Protesters have been blocking roads and starting fires.
Moradores de Umbaúba, interior de Sergipe protestam contra o assassinato de Genivaldo de Jesus Santos, gaseado em uma viatura da PRF. Os manifestantes bloquearam a BR-101 e obrigaram uma viatura da força tática a recuar.
— J&M (@josemaforts22) May 26, 2022
pic.twitter.com/VWq95grfkg
In purported footage of the incident, widely shared on the internet via several clips, two federal highway police officers are seen attempting to restrain 38 year-old Genivaldo de Jesus Santos on the ground on 25 May.
Brazilian police suffocate a mentally ill black man to death with a gas grenade inside a patrol car in Umbaúba, video is graphic and disturbing h/t @bag0leir0 pic.twitter.com/JBjjkYPlSz
— El Parece (@ElParece) May 27, 2022
The next clip from the footage shows officers purportedly putting Santos in the trunk of a Federal Highway Police patrol SUV while the man appears to be resisting.
In yet another clip, officers can be seen using the hatchback of the SUV to pin down the man's legs as the vehicle fills up with an unknown white gas. Screams coming from the man restrained in the trunk are audible. Some local Brazilian outlets have speculated that the gas was from a tear gas canister.
The officers are seen in a follow-up clip holding the man's legs down as the gas or smoke dissipates, and his legs seem to stop moving after about a minute and a half.
The video in question appears to have been edited, with gaps between the clips, thus failing to offer a clear account of what really happened.
In response, Sergipe’s Federal Highway Police issued a statement to say that Santos had "actively resisted" an officer's approach with "aggression."
It has been reported that police officers were forced to use "immobilisation techniques and instruments of lower offensive potential" to restrain him. Highway Police added that the man had died in hospital after “falling ill” during transportation to the police station.
The state’s coroner's office (IML) concluded that Santos died of asphyxiation. “It was not possible to establish the immediate cause [of it]", the IML said, but it promised to conduct further investigations to establish "how the asphyxia process took place".
Local police have opened an internal investigation into the case. There is no official information on why Genivaldo de Jesus Santos was stopped by the police.
The man’s wife, Maria Fabiana dos Santos, was cited by local media as saying her husband was murdered.
“I don’t even call it a fatality. That was really a crime. They acted with cruelty to kill him.” She added that her husband suffered from diagnosed schizophrenia and became agitated after he was stopped by police. It was after they discovered medicine in his pocket, presumably for his mental illness, that they tried to arrest him.
“We told the police all the time that he had a heart problem, he had mental problems. And they continued the torture him, telling everyone to stay away,” Wallison de Jesus, the man’s nephew, told the Washington Post.
“The images are just shocking. He’s a mentally disturbed person, and it’s the story of you using the vehicle as a gas chamber to immobilise a person,” Samira Bueno, executive director of the non-governmental Brazilian Forum on Public Safety told the Washington Post.
