The death of a man asphyxiated following being placed in the trunk of a police vehicle from which thick smoke was coming out shocked Brazilwhere a video of a witness who filmed the scene went viral.
The Federal Highway Police (PRF) assured this Thursday in a statement that the agents “they used immobilization techniques and instruments with low offensive potential” before the “aggressiveness” of Genivaldo de Jesús Santos38 years old, during a control.
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The events occurred on Wednesday on a road near Umbauba, a small town of 25,000 inhabitants in the state of Sergipe (northeast).
The video images clearly show two PRF officers, wearing helmets, trying to lock a man in the trunk of a car, whose legs stick out.
Thick white smoke billows out of the trunk, looking like it came from a tear gas canister. You can hear the cries of pain and the comments of a witness exclaiming: “They’re going to kill him!”
The man moves his legs for regarding a minute and then freezes. The officers then fold their legs and close the trunk.
According to the PRF, the man was later transferred to the Umbauba police station, but “He felt bad” during the journey and was taken to the hospital, where “he was treated and death was confirmed.”
The press release does not specify whether the man arrived at the hospital dead, but the Sergipe security secretary revealed that the result of the autopsy confirmed death by “asphyxiation”.
Genivaldo de Jesús Santos’ nephew told the G1 news site that he tipped off officers that his uncle suffered from “mental problems” and that he was on a motorcycle at the time of the control.
“I was close and I saw everything (…) They threw some kind of gas in the trunk, they went to the police station, but my uncle was already unconscious [al llegar]. The policemen took him to the hospital, but it was already too late,” he revealed.
“It is not a fatality, that is a crime. They acted cruelly to kill him.”The victim’s wife told G1.
The PRF said that it “regrets the facts” and announced “the opening of a disciplinary file to evaluate the conduct of the agents involved.”
This security body that usually acts exclusively on the roads participated this Tuesday in the police operation that left at least 26 dead in the favela of Vila Cruzeiro, in Rio de Janeiro.
The PRF says they were called in to help arrest truck load theft suspects.
