BRASÍLIA, Nov 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazilian police arrested the supervisor of a Carrefour supermarket in Porto Alegre where security guards beat a black man to death, and accused her of collaborating with the killers.
Supervisor Adriana Alves Dutra had the authority to stop the guards from beating 40-year-old Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas on Nov 19, said homicide investigator Vanessa Pitrez with the Civilian Police.
“She had authority over the two guards,” and because of that “the law sees her as a homicide co-conspirator,” Pitrez said at a press conference, as cited by the news site UOL.
Pitrez has asked that the woman be temporarily jailed.
Alves Dutra appears in a video that went viral standing by as Silveira Freitas is punched in the face and head in the supermarket parking lot by one security guard as the second guard restrains him.
According to the preliminary investigation Silveira Freitas was beaten for more than five minutes before being immobilized by his attackers and dying of asphyxiation.
Both security guards have been arrested.
The video of the beating quickly went viral online and triggered of demonstrations on Friday as the country marked Black Consciousness Day. More protests were held across the country over the weekend.
On Monday police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to break up a crowd of protesters that blocked a street and stopped traffic in front of a Carrefour branch in Porto Alegre, located in southern Brazil.
Supermarket chain Carrefour has faced a wave of boycott calls and sometimes violent protests outside its stores across Brazil, drawing comparisons with the killing of George Floyd in the United States in May and the ensuing protests.
On Monday shares in the French group’s Brazilian unit were down six percent in afternoon trading on the Sao Paulo stock exchange, and in Paris Carrefour shares closed down 2.2 percent.
The supermarket chain promised to earmark some $5 million to fight against racism. — NNN-AGENCIES
