Three days after the police operation that left 23 people dead in Vila Cruzeiro, in the north of Rio, until this Friday (27) nine military police officers and three federal highway police officers had already testified to the Homicide Police (DH) of Rio. of January.
They surrendered their weapons – 12 rifles – and admitted to participating in shootings in the locality known as Vacaria, in a forested region where ten people were killed. DH will investigate whether any of the police officers killed someone who had already surrendered or was unable to react, which would constitute a crime.
Other police officers are yet to testify, and the Civil Police are also investigating the circumstances of the deaths of the other 13 victims. According to the Military Police, only one of the victims was innocent – hairdresser Gabriella Ferreira da Cunha, 41, was hit by a stray bullet inside her own home, in the Chatuba favela, next to Vila Cruzeiro.
On Thursday (26), the newspaper “O Estado de S. Paulo” reported that 11 of the 23 victims had no criminal lawsuits against them, according to a survey carried out on the websites of the state Judiciary. Of the 12 who responded or already responded to processes of this type, closed or still in progress, nine were accused of committing crimes in the State of Rio de Janeiro, two responded to criminal processes in Pará and one in Amazonas.
Source: CNN Brasil
