Papangu killer: police arrest 4th suspect involved in death of gas station owner | Pernambuco

The Civil Police arrested a 19-year-old man this Thursday (14) suspected of involvement in the death of the owner of a gas station in Olinda, during Carnival. Rafael Gonçalves Elihimas, aged 34, was murdered by a person dressed as a papangu, in a location close to the city’s main party centers (see video below).

This was the fourth suspect involved in the crime to be arrested by the Civil Police. He was arrested at a sister’s house in Caetés, in the municipality of Abreu e Lima, in Greater Recife. According to delegate Francisco Océlio, the four arrested so far are suspected of extorting the gas station owner’s family.

“These four temporary arrests that we made, two of them, we made in the interior, are of people who are being investigated due to calls extorting family members of the victim demanding a certain amount, a certain value”, said the delegate.

Francisco Océlio also said that these alleged debts have not been proven by the police so far.

“According to the extortionist, it would be due to a drug debt that the victim had left. This debt, it should be said, that no one in the family can vouch for. What is known is that Rafael, the victim, was not a drug user and much less held debt, So, we work with the issue of extortion. They were arrested precisely because these people had privileged information regarding the knowledge of information and family members and also knew about the murder”, declared the delegate.

The police said they will ask the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Court to extend the deadline for completing the investigation, as well as to extend the temporary arrests, which initially have a 30-day period.

The delegate also said that the Civil Police are investigating who the person dressed as a papangu was who shot the gas station owner.

“Due to the fact that the shooter was dressed as a papangu, his face did not appear in the images, but there are other elements that we know, such as his height. You can see that he is slight. He has several aspects. There are also possibly biological aspects left , fingerprints, all of this is being analyzed. But for the police, your face doesn’t need to be visible,” he declared.

Criminal dressed as a papangu pretends to be a customer and kills man in Olinda

The murder was recorded on the store’s security camera. In the images, it is possible to see when the criminal dressed as a papangu pretends to be a customer and takes a bottle of water from a cooler (see video above).

When Rafael turns his back to get products from a shelf, the criminal pulls out a gun that was hidden inside his costume and shoots the businessman several times, who died at the scene. The criminal fled shortly afterwards.

At the time of the crime, a relative of Rafael told g1 that the businessman had no problems with anyone and had been with the business for two years. Rafael was married and had two children, a 10-year-old girl and a four-month-old baby.