This Friday (4th), the justice of Rio de Janeiro upheld the arrest of Navy Sergeant Aurélio Alves Bezerra, who killed his neighbor Durval Teófilo Filho with three shots, at the door of the condominium where the two lived in the Colubandê neighborhood, in São Gonçalo, Metropolitan Region of Rio.
Judge Ariadne Villela Lopes, from the 5th Criminal Court, responded to the request of the Public Ministry of the State of Rio de Janeiro (MPRJ) who disagreed with the indictment given by the Homicide Police Station of Baixada Fluminense, which indicted the soldier for manslaughter, when there is no the intention to kill.
in conversation with the CNN, the victim’s family says they believe the crime was racially motivated, since Durval had lived in the condominium for 15 years, and used to travel the same route every day.
The images from the security cameras of the condominium, to which the CNN had access, they record the moment in which the repositor, a black man, walks through a backpack, when he is hit by the shots.
A few seconds later, sergeant Aurélio Alves Bezerra walks towards Durval, who is lying on the ground.
“We were born and raised in that neighborhood. My brother was a man who worked his whole life to support his family, and when he moved to that condominium, it was to give his daughter a better life, and to have more security. But he ended up murdered.”, says the victim’s sister, Fabiana Teófilo.
Durval left a wife and a six-year-old daughter.
Navy sergeant Aurélio Alves Bezerra, in a statement to the police, said he asked the man, after the shooting, if he was unarmed.
Already lying on the ground, Durval Téofilo Filho, a supermarket stocker, even said that he was also a resident of the same condominium. The information is in the episode’s occurrence record, obtained by the CNN.
To the police, the sergeant said he fired because he noticed that the man approaching his car was walking fast and moving his waist.
Aurélio stated that he could not see properly, since his car has a protective film, it was dark and it was raining outside.
The sergeant also said that he did not know the victim and took Durval, who was shot, to be rescued at a state hospital near the condominium. The case was initially registered as manslaughter, when there is no intention to kill.
The sergeant attached, in the process opened by the case, the certificate of registration of his firearm, issued by the Navy. The document was issued in 2020 and shows that Aurélio could carry a .40 pistol.
For Lívio José Lima, a member of the Brazilian Security Forum, the situation was not evaluated by the sergeant for possible self-defense.
“If he didn’t know, the police training says to frame him, under well-founded suspicion, since the region has frequent robberies”. The right thing would be, according to him, to check the situation before shooting.
recent cases
Livio recalled the case of a man who was killed after his umbrella was mistaken for a rifle.
“The shooting recalls the case of Congolese Moise Kabagambe, a certainty that some people have that violent acts will not be punished, they will be exonerated. This is the most worrying thing”, said Lívio, who is also a civil police officer.
“The author did not think he would be arrested. What worries me is what kind of reality we are in so that this case, the case of Moïse, and they think they will be exonerated”, he adds.
In a statement, the Brazilian Navy says that it “became aware of the occurrence involving one of its military personnel, in São Gonçalo-RJ, and informs that it is collaborating with the responsible bodies for the elucidation of the fact”.
“MB regrets what happened and sympathizes with the victim’s family.”
Source: CNN Brasil
