Rio police investigates dancer's death

The Rio de Janeiro police announced that the circumstances surrounding the death of dancer Douglas Rafael da Silva Rereira in Pavão-pavãozinho, a neighborhood between Copacabana and Ipanema, in Rio's South Zone, are being investigated by the police from Ipanema.

Douglas was 25 and worked as a dancer on the TV show “Esquenta”, aired by Globo TV, Brazil's television channel with the highest ratings. Early on Tuesday morning (Apr. 22), the Police from the local Pacifying Police Unit (“UPP”) found within the walls of a public school Douglas's dead body with signs of beating.

The UPP's press office declared that his body did not present any signs of wounds caused by bullets. According to a report released by the Forensic Institute, he was killed after his lung was pierced. A copy of the document was given to family members and posted on social networking sites by the Human Rights Commission of Brazil's Bar Association (“OAB”).

In the report, the cause of death is described as an “internal hemorrhage due to (…) wound in chest.” It does not specify, however, what had caused the wound.

Residents from Pavão-Pavãozinho, where the victim's mother still lives, set up barricades on the roads leading to the community, and clashed with the local UPP police in protest over Douglas's death. A man of about 30 years old was shot dead and a 12-year-old boy died on the site as a result of a stone thrown by a demonstrator, the police reported.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira