Death of Small Black Child, Neglected by His Mother’s White Employer, Shocks Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Miguel Otávio Santana da Silva, 5, died last Tuesday, June 2nd, when he fell from the ninth floor of a building in the São José neighborhood in central Recife, Pernambuco.

The boy was accompanying his mother, housemaid Mirtes Renata Souza, in the apartment where she worked, and, according to neighbors, he started crying when she went out to walk her employer’s dog. Miguel decided to chase his mother, left the apartment, got into the elevator alone – with the consent of Mirtes’ employer – and got lost in the building. Then he fell from a height of 35 meters.

The employer was arrested the next day on suspicion of manslaughter, when there is no intent to kill, but was released on bail and will await proceedings in freedom. The case occurs amid worldwide protests and debates against racism.

“I won’t say I’m angry, I’m not hateful, because the pain for my son’s death is stronger. But I hope that justice will be done. Because if it were the other way around, I believe I wouldn’t even be granted bail. My name would be printed and my face would be all over the media,” said the boy’s mother in an interview with TV Globo on Thursday.

“He got in the elevator. They didn’t have the patience to get him out of the elevator, take him by the arm and get him out of the elevator. Because if it were my former boss’ kids, that’s what I’d do. She entrusted her children to me and my mother. And the moment I entrusted my son to her, unfortunately, she didn’t have the patience to take care of him, to get him out [of the elevator]. He was a child”.

The employer’s name has not been disclosed by the police, but according to Mirtes, she is the first lady of the city of Tamandaré, located 100 kilometers from Recife, Sari Corte Real. She and the mayor, Sérgio Hacker, have yet to publicly comment on the tragedy.

The suspended classes due to the novel coronavirus pandemic were the reason Miguel was forced to go with his mother that Tuesday. According to the quarantine rules in Recife, educational institutions, businesses, bars, cinemas, beaches, parks, and other non-essential activities are closed. However, social isolation measures began to be relaxed on Monday, June 1st. With nowhere to leave the child, the woman took her son to her employer’s residence, where she had been working for four years.

The apartment where Mirtes worked is located on the fifth floor of the Pier Maurício de Nassau Condominium, known as the Twin Towers in the Pernambuco capital. The owner was home with a manicure when the housemaid took the family dog for a walk and left her son with her employer. At that moment, the employer “was the child’s legal guardian”, said detective Ramón Teixeira, in charge of the case, at a virtual press conference on Wednesday.

The building’s CCTV footage shows that the child tried to get into the elevator twice, unaccompanied. At one time he managed to get into the elevator. The employer is shown in the footage talking to the boy but ends up leaving him alone on the premises. Miguel went up to the ninth floor and, according to expert André Amaral, climbed a height of 1.2 meters onto the parapet that leads to a machine room. There, he climbed onto an aluminum railing, which gave way and caused the boy to fall.

“We noticed that the child was screaming for his mother. Maybe the boy saw his mother walking the dog on the street,” said the deputy. One of the broken railing bars was marked by the child’s foot, which supports the expert’s theory.

The mother and a doctor living in the building assisted the child until the ambulance arrived, rushing him to the Restauração Hospital in the Derby neighborhood, where Miguel’s death was confirmed. While the family was in the hospital, the police went to the site to examine the scene and footage.

“She [the employer] had a duty to care for the child. There was negligent behavior, by omission, in leaving the child alone in the elevator,” Teixeira said. The next day, the woman was arrested by the State Civil Police on suspicion of negligent homicide, without intent to kill. The woman was released on a R$20,000 (US$3,900) bail.

The detective is also investigating whether the condominium is also responsible, since on the day of the initial investigation it was found that on the ninth floor, doors and windows in the building’s communal areas were unlocked.

During Miguel’s wake, his relatives expressed their outrage at the employer’s negligence. “We don’t understand. Two adults in a house and no one was watching the child?” said Miguel’s aunt Lourdes Cristina, also referring to the manicurist in the apartment with the employer. Quarantine in Recife does not include beauty salons as an essential activity.

“We don’t believe in inevitability,” commented Miguel’s aunt. He was buried in the district of Bonança, in Moreno, in the Zona da Mata Sul.

According to the Civil Police, the inquiry has a 30-day period to be completed and referred to the Pernambuco Prosecutor’s Office (MP). Once the document is received, it is up to the MP to decide whether or not to indict.

Source: El País