RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – At dawn on Saturday, September 21st, right after the death of the 8-year-old Ágatha Félix, between ten and twenty state police officers invaded the hospital where she had been hospitalized – Getúlio Vargas, in Penha, in northern Rio – and tried to seize the projectile that had killed her.
Despite the pressure from the State Police, the team of doctors and nurses on duty refused to hand over the bullet, which would later be forwarded to the Civil Police, in charge of the investigations.
The Homicide Division of the Civil Police is seeking to persuade members of the medical team to give testimony on the invasion. Professionals who reported the fact to police, however, fear reprisals. The investigators were unable to retrieve images of the police going to the hospital.
Witnesses stated that the shot that struck Ágatha was fired by a state police officer, who had tried to shoot a motorcyclist who was passing by the scene. According to them, contrary to what the State Police declared, there was no gunfire in the locality of Fazendinha, in the Alemão favela complex, at the time when the girl was shot.
The expertise on the bullet found that it would not be possible to compare it to the State Police’s weapons from the favela – only a warped fragment of the projectile was found.
On Friday night, Ágatha was taken to an Emergency Assistance Unit on site. As her condition was critical, she was immediately transferred to the Getúlio Vargas Hospital in a State Police car.
Of the 11 State Police officers who were in the vicinity of the scene where Ágatha was shot, only two agreed to take part in the reenactment of the crime, which took place last Tuesday, October 1st.
Wilson Witzel, the governor of Rio, commented on the case on his Twitter profile and stated that “everything will be thoroughly investigated”.
“Regarding the reports that state police officers had tried to apprehend the bullet that shot the girl Ágatha, my position is firm: everything will be thoroughly investigated. The facts, if proven, are inadmissible. The guilty will be punished.”
Source: Veja