The Common Justice accepted charges of the São Paulo Public Prosecution Service (MPSP) and made defendants three police, a major, a captain and a cable, for involvement in deaths with evidence of execution occurred during the Operation Summer 2023/2024. The complaints were filed to court in December 2024, but the cases occurred in February 2024.
Operation Summer was considered the second most lethal of the São Paulo police, behind only the Carandiru massacre, resulting in 56 deaths. Its occurrence, as well as Operation Shield, from July to September 2023, marked the resumption of a posture of the corporation with more appreciation of the confrontation, which has led to increased police lethality in the state and complaints by health servants. A complaint against two military police officers had already been accepted in November 2024related to the same operation.
Investigations on the case have been motivated by the performance of civil society organizations that accuse the lack of transparency in actions and excesses in approaches taken during major police operations in São Paulo, which motivated a complaint to the Organization of American States (OAS) . MPSP itself ended 17 of 22 research processes related to Operation Summer at the end of last year.
The cases
The first complaint involved police officer Rafael Cambui, prosecuted by the death of Luan dos Santos, a man who was on the back of a motorcycle in the city of Santos. The Public Prosecution Service claims that Rafael concealed information about the incident, having fired without warning and no chance of defense to the victim, who was unarmed. According to the MP, the policeman said he chased the accused, in the car, because he and the motorcycle driver would steal another motorcyclist, and that the victim signs of being armed by taking something in his coat pocket.
According to the PM version, the shooting was accidental, but the victim, after being hit, hurled an object (supposedly a gun) in a nearby river. According to the prosecution’s piece, the victim’s injuries do not seem to have occurred with the moving vehicles and the reached man would not be able to throw something after the injuries. “In addition to the conducting witnesses of the two motorcycles, including a civil police officer, claiming that the offender was not armed, the legal report concluded that the victim was unable to throw an object into the river and to position himself sitting on the floor.”
The MP also pointed out that the police could not pursue under those conditions and should have been reinforced to surround the suspects and safeguard the lives of all. Luan’s death, on the same day of the police approach, took place on February 16 last year. The other military police officer involved, Thales de Abreu Garcia, was the driver of the car and was not accused by the prosecutor.
The second case, which involved police Nielson Barbosa Medeiros and Tiago Morato Maciel, was on February 7, in the municipality of São Vicente. At the time, the two PMs went to the house that would be the companion of the killer of a policeman, killed on the 2nd of that month, who motivated Operation Summer. There were a man who had a previous passage through the prison system, Hildebrando Simão Neto, and one Witness of his death, Davi Gonçalves Junior. Hilderbrando had a seriously compromised view, about 30 centimeters of visual acuity.
In an interval of less than 9 minutes, the police fired five, resulting in the deaths of the two involved. According to the MP, the version of Medeiros and Maciel was of confrontation followed by death, and the victims were armed. The prosecution says that the weapons were not the accused, and the conditions, including the injuries, indicate execution. The police had the body cameras unloaded. Police officers Rodrigo Oliveira Sousa and Diego Barbosa Medeiros were also pointed out, who were not accused because they had no involvement with the deaths.
David’s family lawyer, Rui Elizeu, praised the investigation, saying that the criminal investigation procedure was done with very thorough investigation. “It took a long time, however, it was very detailed, and came to the complaint because of the evidence, undisputed. Now let’s enable ourselves as part of the accusation, because the family wants to know, it is quite humble. We want the two police to be sent to the jury and answer for the murder, “said the lawyer, who represents Nilza, the mother of David.
Elizeu is also a lawyer to defend the family of a man who was killed in daylight, when he worked on a city hall work front, and was shot with two shots, being between life and death. Part of the confrontation, which occurred at the same time, was recorded in videos people who were on site. In this case, the prosecution requested the filing of the inquiry.
THE Brazil agency He sought the defense of the accused police, but has not yet obtained a return. Defenders still have a legal deadline to speak within the process.
