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A black man was beaten to death by two security guards in a supermarket in Porto Alegre, in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.
The crime occurred on the eve of Black Awareness Day, which is celebrated this Friday in Brazil, and is generating outrage on social media.
According to the Brazilian press, João Alberto Silveira Freitas, 41, was shopping with his wife when he allegedly made a “gesture” to a cashier supervisor. The inspector called security, who took the man to the parking lot, where the attacks began.
I was paying at the cashier and he came down first. When I got there I was already immobilized. He asked me “Milena, help me” and when I went, the security guards pushed me “, he told the victim’s wife, Milena Alves.
The images of the assault, which circulate on social networks, show the violence with which the two security guards attacked the victim, who, despite the efforts of the rescuers, ended up being declared dead on the spot.
The causes of João Freitas’ death have yet to be determined. However the G1 It says a preliminary analysis points to suffocation, with one witness saying that, before dying, the victim said she couldn’t breathe.
The video shows all the aggression that (João) suffered before he died. In addition to assaulting him, they strangled him naked, suffocated him (…) there were people asking to be let go and let him breathe, because he screamed that he could not breathe, and they would not let go. When they left him he was already purple, he wasn’t breathing “, A friend of the victim, Paulão Paquetá, told the press.
Several Brazilian politicians, including former presidents Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, condemned the crime on their platforms, denouncing racist outlines.
1 The murder of the young black João Alberto Silveira Freitas, beaten to death by security guards in Carrefour, in Porto Alegre, is disgusting and shows the persistence of slave violence in Brazil (continued)
– Dilma Rousseff (@dilmabr)
November 20, 2020
The history of our country is colored by 350 years of slavery and another 170 years of racist violence, exclusion from citizenship and a profound inequality imposed on the majority population of blacks and blacks. Black Awareness Day is, therefore, a day of mourning and fighting.“, Dilma continued.
Lula da Silva, for his part, considers racism “the origin of all the depths of the country” and that “it is urgent that we interrupt this cycle.”
We woke up annoyed by the brutal scenes of aggression against João Alberto Freitas, a black man, beaten to death in Carrefour. Racism is the origin of all the abysses of that country. It is urgent that we interrupt this cycle.
– Lula (@LulaOficial)
November 20, 2020
The two security guards involved in the crime, one of whom is a member of the Military Police, have been detained and will be charged with qualified homicide. In a statement, the Military Police said that the policemen involved in the assault were “temporary” and outside working hours.
The Carrefour supermarket chain reported that it deeply regrets the case and that it has initiated an internal investigation process, having taken immediate action so that those responsible are legally sanctioned and terminating the contract with the security company.
The multinational attributed, in a statement, the attacks to the security guards and the company that hired them, considering the act as “offender”.
Black Awareness Day is celebrated annually on November 20, in honor of Zumbi dos Palmares, a black leader who fought to end slavery, assassinated in 1695.
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