PM killed by police in SP took care of the cavalry and loved animals | metropolises

São Paulo — Pedagogue Bruna Rodrigues Costa, 34, was having breakfast in Caraguatatuba, on the north coast of São Paulo, when she received a call from her mother, around 9am this Thursday (5/18).

“She asked for my help, for me to light a candle for Roque’s guardian angel, because he had been shot and was going to the hospital. Up until then, I didn’t know what had happened,” she said. metropolises.

Moments later, she received a message from her mother, retired PM Ana Paula Rodrigues, 54, confirming that her stepfather had died, about 90 kilometers away, in São José dos Campos, in the interior of São Paulo.

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Bruna then found out by telephone that Military Police sergeant Roberto Carlos Pereira Roque, 48, had been shot in the belly (see below), fired by a civil police officer when the PM, who was off duty, tried to pull away a fight.

cavalry nurse

Roberto married Ana when Bruna was 10 years old and has raised her as a daughter ever since. The couple met when they both worked at the Military Police Operations Center (Copom), in São Paulo.

From there, Roberto migrated to the corporation’s Cavalry, where he worked for 20 years as a veterinary nurse. During this period, the couple had a son, now 16 years old, who considered his father his best friend.

Bruna says that Roberto’s dedication to his family was also applied at work and to the animals he lived with and cared for.

“My father only came home on holidays, and when he was in the cavalry, he slept in the stable with the horses, he loved them so much. Even though he has a huge scar on his left elbow, because of a kick he took from a mare, he never stopped loving the horses he took care of”, said the pedagogue.

About three years ago, the couple moved to São José dos Campos, just after Bruna went to Caraguatatuba. The sergeant traveled a lot because of his work in the cavalry and visited Bruna on weekends.

break up fight

On Thursday morning, the sergeant was getting ready to go to the gym when his wife informed him of a fight in the street between a relative and another man, who they did not know was an armed civil police officer, over a dog.

“He [PM] went outside to try to break up the fight. The video perfectly shows him trying to break up the fight… there it was. Until now I cannot believe what happened”, said Bruna. The military policeman’s hobby was bodybuilding and running, according to his daughter.

“He was a good father, always. A family person. He didn’t drink, he didn’t like to go to parties, he was calm, he worked in an exemplary way, he took care of the animals as if they were people. I don’t even know how to say what I’m feeling. How can one person end another’s life like that, for nothing?

The body of Sergeant Roberto Carlos Pereira Roque will be cremated this Friday afternoon (5/18) in Jacareí, in the interior of São Paulo.

In a note, the Secretariat of Public Security (SSP) lamented the PM’s death. The folder did not disclose the identity or the police station where the shooter, a 43-year-old civil police officer, works.

The secretariat reported that the police are investigating the circumstances in which the sergeant was murdered and that the PM and the civil police officer who shot “were unaware of each other’s status as police officers.”