A personal trainer who was killed during a mega-raid on bank branches in a Brazilian city was executed with ten gunshots after failing to hold on to the bonnet of the criminals’ getaway car.
Over 20 criminals participated in the two-hour-long raid on three bank branches in the Brazilian city of Aracatuba in the early hours of Monday, 30th August.
The gang members took local residents hostage to use them as human shields, and they also left at least 98 explosive devices around the city.
The criminals also burned several vehicles across the city to block the police’s access, and they also used drones to monitor the police’s actions. They also stole residents vehicles when they fled.
Perhaps the most astonishing footage from the mega-raid filmed by residents from their apartments showed the criminals driving down the road in their getaway vehicles with hostages clinging onto the bonnets and the roof.
The father of a 34-year-old personal trainer, Marcio Victor Possa da Silva, who was one of three killed in the raid, said that his son was one of the hostages, and that he was executed after he fell off the getaway car’s bonnet.
Retired civil servant Genival Jose da Silva told news site G1: “From the footage I saw, he’s on the first car. There’s one on top, and he’s below, on the bonnet. When the criminals went to leave, he was like a human shield. I believe he fell, he couldn’t hold on, or he sensed an opportunity and tried to flee, but he was hit by 10 shots.”
According to Marcio’s uncle, the personal trainer and two female friends were returning home from an event when they were accosted by the heavily-armed gang.
Lawyer Jaime Jose da Silva told G1: “They took my nephew from his car. Only the girls were set free. From the spot in which the body was found, we came to the conclusion that he couldn’t hold on. The criminals stopped and shot him. There were 10 entrance holes, if I’m not mistaken, and nine exit holes.”
Another hostage who was strapped to a getaway car told G1 under anonymity: “When he put me on the car’s bonnet, he said ‘if you let go, if you throw yourself off, I’ll stop the car and I’ll shoot you in the face’. I don’t think I’ve ever held onto something so tightly as I did then. They went over speed bumps, over potholes, and the car jumped, and I held on.”
After over 30 hours of work, a police tactical unit destroyed the 98 explosive devices they found in a landfill, leading to the reopening of the city’s roads on Tuesday, 31st August. Schools reopen today (Thursday, 2nd September).
The amount of money stolen by the criminals from the bank branches was not divulged. However, one of the branches is a regional office and the criminals gained access to the vault.
The other two victims include a 38-year-old petrol station owner who filmed the gang members discharging their weapons and one of the criminals. They were both shot dead.
Five were injured, including a passing cyclist who went to pick up an explosive device, thinking it was a mobile phone. He had to have his feet amputated.
As of 6pm local time on Tuesday, 31st August, five suspects had been arrested by the police.
Two arrested in Aracatuba are a couple suspected of acting as lookouts, one was arrested in the city of Campinas, and two being treated for gunshot wounds in hospital are under police guard – one is unconscious after being shot in the abdomen and the other, who was shot in the arm, is conscious.
The search for the remaining suspects is ongoing.
