Man shot by Brazil police struggling for life, family fighting to prove his innocence

Distant gunfire rang out as Douglas da Silva dropped off a food delivery on October 28 and headed home to his apartment on the north side of Rio de Janeiro.

Hundreds of members of Rio’s elite police forces had stormed a complex of favelas about a mile away, hunting members of the Comando Vermelho gang. A firefight was still raging that evening in the forested hills above his gated apartment complex.

Silva, 30, was arriving home in his white Hyundai sedan when motorcycle cops securing the area ordered him to stop.

What happened next is disputed.

In their report, police officers say Silva refused to stop when ordered, drove off, and shot at them with a revolver – which he later surrendered. Silva’s family says he had no firearm, no criminal ties, and no reason to resist police.

Bystander video – verified by Reuters – shows police barking orders for Silva to exit his car, which was stopped against a curb at the front gate of his apartment complex.

Police then fired through the vehicle’s tinted windows before Silva opened the door, staggered out and sat on the ground, blood streaming from his right cheek.

“My God, what have they done here. Oh my God,” an unidentified woman cried, her voice trembling. “Someone, call an ambulance,” another female voice said.

Reuters verified the location of the videos using street signs, road maps, traffic lights, utility poles and building facades, and confirmed the date with corroborating reports.

Rio police declined to comment on details of the incident, but said last week they had opened an investigation into the case. Three weeks after the shooting, Silva remains in hospital in stable condition – one of hundreds of casualties of the October 28 police raid that left 121 dead, including four police officers, the deadliest in Brazilian history.

Rio Governor Claudio Castro called the raid a “success” and said the only “victims” in the raid were the four slain officers and their injured colleagues. Officials have said anyone else killed or seriously injured in the raid was a gang member.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the Rio state police operation was “disastrous” and vowed to push for an independent investigation demanded by United Nations human rights experts.

‘FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE’

Silva’s family says he was an innocent victim of overzealous policing.

“My husband is now fighting for his life, and we are fighting to prove his innocence,” said Carine Ferreira dos Santos, 30, Silva’s wife and partner in their sandwich and juice delivery business.

The divergent accounts of the shooting, witnessed by neighbors and relatives who recorded part of the incident and aftermath with cell phones, underscore the challenge of piecing together what happened on that bloody day in Rio.

One neighbor, Hugo Silva, 31, a criminal lawyer not related to the victim, began filming from his apartment window after hearing the gunshots.

He said he only heard one caliber of firearm, not revolver shots followed by heavy rifle fire, as the officers described in their incident report, seen by Reuters.

“There was no exchange of gunfire,” he said. Reuters could not independently confirm his account.

Of 40 bystander videos reviewed by Reuters, two dozen show police searching Silva’s white car, its tinted windows rolled up – which his lawyer cites in arguing that his client could not have fired at police officers.

None of the videos or witness accounts reviewed by Reuters included a revolver, which police say they took from Silva. Videos showed police towing the car away. Witnesses said no forensic investigators had arrived at the scene.

Cases like Silva’s are not uncommon in a country where an average of 17 people are killed by police each day, about five times the police killings in the United States, according to the Brazilian Forum for Public Security, a think tank.

A Reuters review of the names of those killed by police in last month’s raid revealed that none of the 117 dead were among the 69 suspects named by prosecutors in the complaint providing the basis for the raid. Silva was also not on the list.

FATHER AND ENTREPRENEUR

Another neighbor who requested anonymity described Silva as a hardworking entrepreneur. He and his wife had saved up to move their family out of a nearby favela five years ago, seeking refuge in the apartment complex from the violence down the road.

“My husband has nothing to do with the operation. We worked very hard to live in a condominium outside that community,” said Santos.

She says she has struggled in recent days to take care of their five- and nine-year-old children while trying to gather evidence to establish her husband’s innocence and character, including paperwork for their company and testimonials from clients.

Santos has filed a police report against the officers who shot at her husband, seen by Reuters, for firearm-related injury and false accusations.

Gil Santiago, an attorney for Santos and her husband, accused the police of tampering with the scene and planting a gun to incriminate Silva.

“Police should have rescued him and preserved the area for forensic analysis,” he said.

Asked about those allegations from Silva’s family, a police spokesperson said detectives and a police oversight office were investigating the case.

Santos said she is at a loss to explain to her children what happened.

She recalls her five-year-old son asking her: “Mom, why did they shoot my dad? They only needed to ask him to stop.”

“We are not safe anywhere,” she said.