Brazil: Anger at Rio military police after boy dies in favela clashes
- 9 years ago
Hundreds of people protested in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday, blaming Brazilian police for the death of a 10-year-old boy during clashes with locals in a favela.
There has been tension since a military force was set up to fight drug trafficking.
Eduardo de Jesus Ferreira was shot in the head as he played with a mobile phone in the entrance to his family home in the Alemao favela complex.
The boy’s mother is among many who blame the police. He was one of four people to die in clashes between police and locals in a 24-hour period.
A male protester said: “We can’t have a ten year-old child having his brains blown out in front of his mother who’s watching TV in the living room – without having society yell about it.”
The Pacifying Police Unit (UPP) says members of the Shock Battalion (BPCHoque) were on patrol in the area when local criminals shot at them.
The UPP started to work in the Alemao favela complex, in the north of Rio, in May 2012. They formed part of a new, 24-hour po
There has been tension since a military force was set up to fight drug trafficking.
Eduardo de Jesus Ferreira was shot in the head as he played with a mobile phone in the entrance to his family home in the Alemao favela complex.
The boy’s mother is among many who blame the police. He was one of four people to die in clashes between police and locals in a 24-hour period.
A male protester said: “We can’t have a ten year-old child having his brains blown out in front of his mother who’s watching TV in the living room – without having society yell about it.”
The Pacifying Police Unit (UPP) says members of the Shock Battalion (BPCHoque) were on patrol in the area when local criminals shot at them.
The UPP started to work in the Alemao favela complex, in the north of Rio, in May 2012. They formed part of a new, 24-hour po