Anger in Brazil after gassing psychotic black man in the back of a police car | Abroad

Genivaldo de Jesus Santos, 38, was arrested on Wednesday by federal highway police officers in the northeastern Brazilian city of Umbaúba. According to the police, he resisted. The officers then tied up his legs and placed him in the back of a police car. Video images show how at least two officers then spray gas into the car and large clouds of smoke form. “They are going to kill him,” one of the bystanders on the video says, as the man’s legs move less and less.

On Thursday, the autopsy report showed that Santos died of asphyxiation. According to his family, Santos suffered from schizophrenia and took medication for it. Santos’ cousin Wallisson de Jesus, who witnessed the tragic incident, told Brazilian news site G1 that the agents also found the drugs on his uncle before tying him up. “I told the officers that he had a mental disorder. My uncle got nervous and asked what he had done,” Wallisson said.

Despite Wallisson’s attempts to talk to the officers, they proceeded to arrest his uncle. “They grabbed him by the arms and legs. They tried to put handcuffs on his feet, but they didn’t fit. They then took tape that was in the car and tied him with it. They started kicking him and put him in the car after which they injected that gas. It was a torture session. Then they took him to the station, but my uncle was unconscious. Then they took him to the hospital, but by then it was too late.”

Santos’ death sparked a wave of anger in Brazil, where deadly police brutality is a regular occurrence and the black population is relatively more victims: according to the Brazilian Forum of Public Security, police killed 6,416 people in 2020 and 6,133 in 2021. Nearly 80 percent of them were black.

“Police officers turned a police vehicle into a gas chamber and executed a man with mental disorders while his cousin watched in broad daylight. There are no words for the magnitude of this inhumanity. Brazil is an extermination camp,” Rio de Janeiro state activist and MP Renata Souza wrote on Twitter.

The officers have admitted to spraying pepper spray and tear gas into the car. In a statement, federal highway police said the officers used “immobilization techniques” and “resources of lesser offensive force” after Santos became aggressive. He is said to have been taken to hospital after becoming unwell on his way to the police station. The officers involved have been suspended. The Federal Police has announced an investigation into Santos’ death.

Santos was killed a day after 23 people were killed in Rio de Janeiro in a police crackdown on drug gang leaders in the Vila Cruzeiro slum. It was the second deadliest police operation ever in the city. According to the Human Rights Commission of the Brazilian Bar Association, torture and summary executions may have taken place during the action.

“There is evidence that at least one person was tortured before being killed,” said commission prosecutor Rodrigo Mondego. “There are also indications that people have died as a result of stabbings. We are monitoring the forensic investigations to see under what circumstances these people died.”

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