Three people were injured, one of them seriously, following the disturbances recorded between Wednesday and today in the Lisbon region, announced the PSP, which in this period detained 13 people and recorded 45 incidents of contempt in eight municipalities.
In a statement released around 12:30 p.m., relating to the “last 24 hours”, the PSP confirmed the arrest of four suspects for committing crimes of robbery, four for qualified physical harm, three for possession of explosive devices and prohibited weapons, one for attempted arson and one for using a fire extinguisher and damaging a PSP vehicle.
Another 18 people were also identified for “various reasons”.
According to the authority’s report, 45 incidents of fires involving urban furniture (mainly rubbish bins) were recorded during this period in the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon (districts of Lisbon and Setúbal), in the municipalities of Almada, Amadora, Barreiro, Lisbon, Loures, Oeiras, Seixal and Sintra.
The total number of incidents recorded resulted in a damaged police vehicle, two buses set on fire, eight cars and a motorbike set on fire, as well as other urban furniture also burnt.
The seriously injured person is the driver of one of the burned buses, who suffered “severe burns to his face, chest and upper limbs.” A source from the transport company Carris Metropolitana had already indicated today that the man, who was driving the car without passengers in Santo António dos Cavaleiros, in the municipality of Loures, is in serious condition.
This week’s riots in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area were triggered by the death of Odair Moniz, 43 years old and resident in Bairro do Zambujal, in Amadora, who was shot by a PSP agent in the early hours of Monday, in Bairro da Cova da Moura, in the same municipality, and who died shortly afterwards, at the São Francisco Xavier Hospital, in Lisbon.
The incidents began in Zambujal, on Monday night and spread, since Tuesday, to other neighborhoods in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area.
In total, more than a dozen people were detained. In addition to the bus driver who suffered serious burns, some citizens were seriously injured and two police officers received hospital treatment.
According to the PSP, Odair Moniz “ran away” in a car after seeing a police vehicle and “got into trouble” in Cova da Moura, where, when approached by the agents, “he resisted arrest and tried to attack them with the use of a bladed weapon”.
The SOS Racismo association and the Vida Justa movement contested the police version and demanded a “serious and impartial” investigation to determine “all responsibilities”, considering that “a culture of impunity” in the police is at stake.
The General Inspectorate of Internal Administration opened an urgent investigation and the PSP also announced an internal investigation, while the agent who shot the man was named a defendant.
