Three doctors were murdered in the early hours of this Thursday (5) at a beach kiosk in Barra da Tijuca, in the west zone of Rio. A fourth doctor was shot in the leg.
Two of the dead were from São Paulo, and the third one was from Bahia. The victims were Marcos de Andrade Corsato, 62, Diego Ralf de Souza Bomfim, 35, and Perseu Ribeiro Almeida, 33. They were orthopedists and were in town to participate in an international surgery congress.
One of the victims, Bomfim was the brother of federal councilwoman Sâmia Bomfim (SP) and also the brother-in-law of Glauber Braga (RJ) — who is married to Sâmia. Both parliamentarians are from PSOL (Socialism and Liberty Party), the party of councilor Marielle Franco, who was shot dead in Rio in 2018.
Security camera footage shows that the four doctors were sitting at a table at the kiosk when three men, dressed in black, got out of a white car and started shooting.
After shooting the occupants of the table, the criminals ran back to the vehicle and left without stealing anything. The occurrence lasted 27 seconds.
Investigators say that the execution hypothesis has gained strength because it is possible to see in the images that the criminals returned to the kiosk to fire more shots — a practice known as "confer", in which the killer fires a few more shots to ensure the death of the target.
The suspicion is that Perseu Almeida could have been mistaken for Taillon de Alcantara Pereira Barbosa, 26, accused by the state Prosecution Service of being part of the Rio das Pedras militia.
The militiaman was arrested in November 2020 and sentenced to 8 years and 5 months in prison. In March, he was placed under house arrest and, ten days ago, he was released on parole. The investigation that led to his arrest is an offshoot of Operation Untouchables, which targeted former military police officer Adriano da Nóbrega, linked to the family of former president Jair Bolsonaro.
The police's suspicion of the murderers' confusion is due to the physical similarity between Taillon and Perseus: shaved hair, with initial signs of baldness, beard, and glasses.
Translated by Cassy Dias