Brazil: Police chiefs dismissed for murder of gassed man

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Two high-ranking officials of the Brazilian Federal Highway Police have been dismissed following the scandal over the death of a man who was gassed to death in the trunk of a patrol car that had been converted into a tear gas chamber.

The Official Gazette of the Union published Tuesday the dismissal of the executive director of the Highway Patrol, Jean Coelho, and the director of the Intelligence Service, Alan da Motta.

The measure was taken six days after Highway Patrol officers in Sergipe, in the northeastern state of Sergipe, arrested motorcyclist Genivaldo Santos, who was thrown into the trunk of a patrol car and murdered in cold blood with tear gas.

The arrest and detention of Santos was captured in several videos that were widely echoed on Brazil’s social networks.

President Jair Bolsonaro said Monday that “we cannot generalize because the PRF (Highway Patrol) is doing an extraordinary job.”

“The judiciary will investigate this case, justice will certainly be established, but without exaggeration we regret what happened,” Bolsonaro said, criticizing media coverage that “always sides with the bandits.”

The defense of Santos’ relatives, on the other hand, criticized the “torture” to which the motorcyclist was subjected in a “gas chamber” inside the police vehicle and demanded the arrest of the officers involved.