– Police kill many innocent people – NRK Urix – Foreign News and Documentaries

Vanessa Felix has suffered an incomprehensible loss.

– A 34-year-old woman from Rio de Janeiro says in an interview with NRK that it is still not possible to talk about my daughter without me starting to cry.

It’s been a year and a half since that happened. While he was sitting on the school bus with his eight-year-old daughter, Agatha, a policeman shot and killed the suspect. Shot on daughter’s back and She took her life.

The tragedy took place at the Complexo du Alemio slum in Rio, and caused great controversy and outrage. Thousands of people took to the streets in protest.

– My daughter is gone. My only child. I try every day, by all means, live, says the 34-year-old.

– After the tragedy, which is more difficult?

“Every day is heavy and hard, but it was even more sad on his birthday and Mother’s Day because Agatha is always so good at finding something good to give me,” says her mother.

It kills more and more people

In recent years, Rio police have killed more people than ever before Official figures. This is a result of the increased efforts of the authorities against the perpetrators.

– But one of Rio’s most famous human rights lawyers told the NRK that the initiative was affecting many innocent people.

– Rodrigo Montego, chairman of the Human Rights Council in Rio, says innocent people who have never been involved in crime are being killed by police.

– It has the full support of the government. Authorities have practically given the police free rein to shoot suspected offenders in Favelas, the prosecutor says.

He believes this is a human rights violation:

– When you give a police officer the right to hang someone he considers a criminal, you are opening yourself up to injustice. This led to the killing of hundreds of innocent people, some of them children.

– But Rodrigo Montego, a lawyer in Rio, says it is almost impossible to punish police officers for such crimes.

The first charge

The murder of 8-year-old Agatha Felix has attracted a lot of attention here in Brazil. This is one of those cases where there is a police officer Charge of murder During an operation on the fevalas.

The police have changed their interpretation several times. They first said they were “criminals” in Pavela, where the shootings took place. But after witnesses appeared, they admitted that an officer had opened fire dangerously.

NRK has asked the Rio police for an interview, but has been denied.

The human rights lawyer closely follows the development of the case:

– The court hearing should have been in November. However, without providing any evidence – the accused said he was suffering from corona. Nevertheless, the case has been adjourned again, and now a verdict is expected in April, says Rodrigo Montego at the Human Rights Council in Rio.

But the child’s mother still does not dare to believe in justice:

– It’s hard. The police are doing everything they can to prevent the case from coming to trial. They say they are in favela to protect us. It makes it even harder to bear grief and loss, he says.

She no longer thinks about the future.

– Every day is a different need. Every day starts differently and ends differently. Vanessa Felix in Rio de Janeiro says this is simply a matter of survival.