A 16-year-old teenager was shot in the head in Guarulhos, Greater São Paulo, in an action by the Municipal Civil Guard (GCM) to disperse a dance funk held between Sunday night (28) and Monday morning (29) on Rua Jequitibá, in Jardim Monte Alegre.
According to the Guarulhos city hall, the Civil Guard went to disperse the dance funk after receiving complaints from residents. When security agents arrived at the scene, stones and other objects were reportedly thrown by the public at the guards, the municipal administration reported.
According to the São Paulo Public Security Department, in addition to the 16-year-old teenager, a 25-year-old man was shot during the commotion at the dance. funkThe case was registered as bodily harm and attempted murder. Neither the department nor the city hall reported where the shots came from, but the Civil Guard says they were using non-lethal weapons at the time of the incident.
Images circulating on social media show that, after the guard arrived, there was a lot of confusion at the scene, with the use of tear gas and a stampede.
According to the city government, during the dispersal, the GCM agents used only weapons with non-lethal ammunition, but moments later, in a forest far from the range of the guard, a person said he had been shot in the leg, but could not explain where the shot came from. “Assisted by SAMU, she was taken to the Pimentas Bonsucesso Municipal Hospital with minor injuries, not life-threatening. Later, the GCM was informed that another person arrived at the same hospital after being shot in the head by locals, who did not identify themselves, just left the young man at the scene and left. The victim is hospitalized in the ICU [unidade de terapia intensiva] in serious condition.”
The municipal administration also reported that the incident was registered at the 4th Police District of Guarulhos and that, during the operation, 70 motorcycles were seized at the site, eight of which were the result of robberies and thefts.
For Ariel de Castro Alves, member of the Children and Adolescents Commission of the Brazilian Bar Association of São Paulo (OAB/SP) and former national secretary for the Rights of Children and Adolescents, the Civil Police must investigate where the shot that hit the teenager came from.
Casto Alves also considers it essential that the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Civil Police investigate whether the GCM committed abuse in this action. “There is information that the municipal civil guards surrounded and cornered the participants of the dance funkand there was a lot of turmoil, which could lead to a tragedy like the one in Paraisópolis, in São Paulo, in 2019,” he told Brazil Agency.
In December 2019, nine young people died at a dance funk in the community of Paraisópolis, south of São Paulo, after police surrounded the place. There was a commotion, a stampede, and many young people ended up being trampled. The case became known as the Paraisópolis Massacre.
