Former Rota military police officer Fábio Henrique Vieira, 53, was found dead in a burned-out car last Saturday (2), in Itupeva, in the interior of São Paulo. He was part of Operation Castelinho.
Operation Castelinho took place in 2002, when more than 50 police officers executed 12 people who were allegedly members of the PCC criminal faction. The victims were on a bus on the José Ermírio de Moraes highway, nicknamed Castelinho, when they were ambushed at the toll booth.
In 2014, all the police officers involved, including Fábio Henrique Vieira, were cleared by the São Paulo Court. THE CNN had access to the sentence, in which Fábio stated that he was asked to participate in an operation and found out what it was about in a meeting that took place at the Highway Police station.
The mission was to approach a bus, but the vehicle’s occupants did not obey the order to stop and started shooting; the police retaliated. Fábio stated that he participated in helping one of the victims. They all died.
The Inter-American Court condemned Brazil for the military action. The Court’s decision was handed down in 2024, with the argument that there was no exchange of gunfire “between police officers and the 12 people killed, since most of the evidence indicates that the alleged victims were not armed at the time of their death,” the agency said.
After analysis, the Court determined several reparation measures. Among them, the creation of a working group to analyze police actions; offering medical, psychological or psychiatric treatment to family members and payment of US$80,000 to the families of each of the victims for moral damages and US$20,000 for material and immaterial damages.
Car burned
During the afternoon of Saturday (2), the Itupeva Municipal Guard was called to an incident of a car on fire on the banks of Via Cyrineu Tonolli. With the support of the Cabreúva Fire Department, the fire was extinguished and the presence of two charred bodies was verified, Vieira and another that has not yet been identified.
The car, a Jeep Compass, was registered in the name of the former military police officer’s wife. Vieira had been missing since leaving with a friend identified as Ronaldo Félix Gomes, 45, who has criminal proceedings, it is suspected that Gomes is the body that has not yet been recognized.
This content was originally published in Former Rota police officer killed in burning car was part of Operation Castelinho on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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