Rio de Janeiro Prosecutor’s office charges two police officers involved in Jacarezinho favela massacre

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – According to the complaint published by the Prosecutor’s Office, the two agents will answer for the murder of Omar Pereira da Silva; one of them will be charged with intentional homicide and procedural fraud, and the other with procedural fraud.

The prosecution points out that one of the agents shot Pereira da Silva when the victim was cornered in the bedroom of a house, unarmed, and already shot in one foot.

Read also: Check out our coverage on the Jacarezinho massacre

Both policemen removed the body from the scene before the experts could assess the situation.

In addition, they placed a grenade in the area of the crime to incriminate the victim. When registering what happened at the police station, they presented a pistol and a magazine, falsely claiming to have confiscated them from the deceased.

The complaint, which is the first to be filed in the Jacarezinho case, also calls for the removal of these two policemen from their job functions, especially their participation in operations.

The police operation carried out in the Jacarezinho favela was theoretically aimed at attacking one of the strongholds of a local drug gang but was heavily criticized for its high lethality, as it is the worst police killing in Rio’s history.