MPF denounces federal highway police officers for the death of a student during an approach on a highway

The four federal highway police officers who shot and killed student Anne Caroline Nascimento Silva, aged 23, were charged by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) with qualified homicide. In the complaint, the MPF also requested the preventive arrest of the agents. The case happened in July last year. The nursing student was returning from a restaurant with her husband when she was hit by one of eight rifle shots fired at the car she was in. Anne Caroline was rescued, but did not survive her injuries.

The agents, if convicted, could face up to 30 years in prison. They were also accused of committing procedural fraud, attempted murder and serious bodily injury in the form of negligence, as one of the shots hit a Corsa Max that was also traveling along Washington Luiz, injuring day laborer Claudia dos Santos. She was treated, underwent surgery and had to stay away from work.

The MPF requests, in addition to receiving the complaint and the conviction of the four police officers, compensation to repair the moral and material damages caused to Alexandre and Claudia, in the amounts of R$1.5 million and R$1 million, respectively.

The MPF states, in the complaint, that federal highway police officers Thiago da Silva de Sá, Jansen Vinícius Pinheiro Ferreira, Diogo Silva dos Santos and Wagner Leandro Rocha de Souza were on duty on June 17, 2023. Around 10 pm, according to testimony by Alexandre Mello, husband of Anne Caroline, a police car, with its headlights off, approached the Jeep Renegade he was driving and started chasing the car. Shortly afterwards, the police turned on the giroflex and, without there being time to order a stop or any other form of appropriate police approach, began the sequence of eight rifle shots.

Seven shots hit the Jeep Renegade and one of them injured Anne Caroline. Immediately, Alexandre stopped the car and got out with his hands raised. Upon realizing that there was an injured person, one of the police officers took the wheel of the Jeep and drove to the Hospital Estadual Getúlio Vargas, located in Bairro da Penha, Rio de Janeiro, with the police vehicle following behind. While Anne Caroline was being attended to, the four police officers would have adopted an intimidating attitude towards Alexandre, in a type of preliminary and informal interrogation. The young woman arrived at the hospital at 10:45 pm and was declared dead at 2:50 am.

Qualified homicide

In the complaint, the MPF informs that the murder of Anne Caroline is qualified, since the victim had no chance of defense, as “the seven projectiles that hit the Jeep Renegade Sport were fired from the rear of the vehicle, using a rifle long-range, large-caliber assault weapon.” The agency maintains that the four police officers must answer for the crime, although only one fired the shots.

— Criminal authorship is not limited to the practice of nuclear action described in the criminal type. All that is needed is for there to be a prior confluence of wills for the subjective bond necessary for the configuration of co-authorship to be established —, explains Public Prosecutor Eduardo Benones.

Furthermore, testimonies show that the police officer who fired the shots was instigated by his colleagues to shoot.

— Firing eight rifle shots into the back of a moving vehicle, which was evidently being driven by someone, is an undeniable attack on life,” says Eduardo Benones. The public prosecutor maintains that, by shooting, the police officers took the risk of killing someone, a circumstance that led to the accusation of the crime of attempted murder in Alexandre’s case. For the MPF, the death of the Jeep Renegade driver did not occur due to “circumstances beyond the control of those reported.

In the case of day laborer Claudia, who, in fact, was injured, the crime cited is serious bodily injury. The complaint highlights that the penalty may be increased by a third if the agent does not seek to reduce the consequences of his act.

— Throughout the investigations, no evidence was found that those accused had taken any action to minimize the consequences of the bodily injuries suffered by Claudia dos Santos —, explains the prosecutor.

The MPF further maintains that, by taking the wheel of the targeted car and leaving the scene, the accused police officers violated their functional duty to isolate the scene of the crime and preserve the traces left on the road and in the vehicles involved, which constitutes procedural fraud. According to the complaint, there was a police detachment a short distance from the scene. The federal highway police officers involved could have called for reinforcements to help the victim and, at the same time, preserved the scene of the crime, an attitude that is the duty of any authority in that situation.

Preventive detention

When requesting the preventive detention of the four accused, the MPF highlights that the statements record that the police had tried to intimidate Alexandre on the day of the crime, while Anne Caroline was being treated in the hospital. For Eduardo Benones, the “facts subject to this investigation are extremely serious, having been committed not only with violence and serious threats, but in the context of abuse of police activity”. According to him, those accused “in the exercise of their functions, made use of the means and resources provided by the State to commit crimes in flagrant violation of their functional duties, and it is clear that their conduct vehemently justifies the arrest preventative”.