PSP recognizes that the fatal victim in Cova da Moura was not in a stolen car. “I don’t know where they got this information from”
In the moments following Odair Nunes’ death, some media outlets reported that he was in a “stolen vehicle” and that this was the reason he fled the police. The family assured from the beginning that the car belonged to the victim and that there were “papers” to prove it. The news was not denied. See you this Wednesday.
“I don’t know where they got this information,” said one of the officers at a press conference that brought together several PSP employees (the national director, Luís Carrilho, was absent). But this formal denial raises even more doubts about what happened in the early hours of October 21st: what led a 43-year-old cook to flee from the police and react violently when intercepted?
Pedro Cunha, deputy national director in charge of operations and security, did not want to add anything to what the PSP revealed on the day of the death of the resident of Bairro do Zambujal: he fled from the police, rammed some cars and when he was intercepted, he reacted violently, having tried to attack the agents with a sharp weapon. One of them, having “exhausted” the means of persuasion, ended up shooting four times. Two in the air and two in the direction of Odair, who would die about two hours later in a hospital.
The agent who killed him is a young man with just over a year of experience. For Pedro Cunha, this is not an issue: “The police officers who carried out their duties have basic training from the Practical School and can act throughout the territory and in all circumstances. The fact that they are younger or older does not determine their ability to intervene and patrol more or less critical areas.”
Odair’s death provoked a wave of protests and protests that have lasted for three days and led to the destruction of buses, injuries to three police officers and two civilians, fires and a PSP vehicle being shot at.
Pedro Gouveia guaranteed that the PSP will have “zero tolerance” towards “acts of disorder” carried out by “criminal groups” against “good people”. Luís Elias, commander of the Lisbon PSP, guaranteed that in addition to the three suspects already detained “there are dozens of identified suspects who could be detained in the coming days”.
According to those responsible for the police, the information services of the PSP and GNR and even the SIS are “collecting information” about cases of “incitement to hatred against the Police” that can be used “for criminal liability”. “There are messages calling for the death of police officers,” said Elias.
