RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Two Brazilian police officers have been arrested in Rio de Janeiro after security camera footage showed them firing at two young men on a motorcycle before they were taken away in a car. The two men later turned up dead.
Saturday’s incident in Rio’s poor suburb of Belford Roxo sheds new light on the aggressive tactics of Brazilian police, which critics say often attack poor young black men in deadly raids.
Critics say Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain, has enabled the police to be more aggressive than ever, giving them his full support to take out criminals in the country’s drug-riddled slums. Bolsonaro has said “criminals should die like cockroaches.” here
Rio military police said in a statement, “As soon as (we) became aware of the facts, all relevant measures were taken immediately.”
The two officers, it added, “were arrested and taken to the Rio de Janeiro military police prison.” Their weapons have been confiscated and they have been questioned.
In the video, which aired for the first time on Brazilian news show Fantastico on Sunday, a motorcycle with two men drives around the corner, past the police. As it passes, one of the officers opens fire on the men and they both fall off the bike.
The officers take them off the road, and according to footage from another camera, they shackle them while standing against a wall. They then put them in the back of their car while one of the officers drives off with their motorcycle.
The two men, identified by local media as Edson Arguinez Junior, 20, and Jordan Luiz Natividade, 18, were later found dead, far from the scene of the arrest.
According to Fantastico, the two police officers neglected to fire the motorcycle. They said they released the two men shortly after taking them off in their car, after realizing there were no problems with them or their bikes.
Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter in Rio de Janeiro; Editing by Matthew Lewis