Military policemen indicted over death of five young men in Rio

The four military police officers accused of killing five young men in Rio were indicted on Monday (Dec. 14) by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Rio de Janeiro. They are charged with five counts of aggravated murder, two counts of aggravated attempted homicide, procedural fraud by tampering with the crime scene, and carrying guns with doctored serial numbers.

Antônio Carlos Gonçalves Filho, Fabio Pizza Oliveira da Silva, Thiago Resende Viana Barbosa and Marcio Darcy Alves dos Santos are implicated in the murder of five young men in Costa Barros, north Rio, in the evening of November 28.

In the indictment, prosecutors say the five young men were killed out of base motives, on suspicion that the young men were implicated in another crime. The cops fired dozens of shots with high-powered guns against the unarmed boys in a car.

According to Prosecutor Fábio Vieira dos Santos, the police officers wore gloves and artificially altered the crime scene to support their statement to police that the victims were carrying weapons and opened fire at them. They put a toy gun next to the right tire of the car where the victims were executed.

Translated by Mayra Borges