Brazil: Minors shot by police after simulating assault on networks

Deight adolescents were shot by the police as they simulated a robbery in the outskirts of Fortaleza, in the brazilian state of Ceará. Young people were producing content for social media.

The “novelinha”, as this type of production is called, according to the Brazilian press, was being recorded on Wednesday. The agents were called to the location where the filming took place and the caller reported that the situation of – supposed – assault involved two teenagers who would be armed.

According to what the Public Security Secretariat explained, cited by g1, a witness even confirmed that there was “criminal action”.

“At the scene, the agents saw two teenagers on top of a motorcycle, where the passenger pointed a firearm at people on the sidewalk and asked for their cell phone. Faced with the threat, the military reacted ", explained the Military Police in a statement cited by the same publication.

Teenagers, aged 14 and 16, were shot and were in serious condition. Both were then taken to the hospital, where they underwent surgery and where they remain hospitalized, despite being considered stable.

The police also said that as soon as the investigation began, it was realized that it was all a “enactment aimed at producing content for social networks”.

The gun wasn't real and two teenagers, who pretended to be the victims of the robbery, confirmed to the authorities that it was a recording. The device, the fake gun and the motorcycle, which belongs to the father of one of the adolescents and was used without authorization, were seized.

The case has now been handed over to the Police Department of Children and Adolescents, and now the “circumstances of police intervention” to be “duely cleared in Military Police Survey”.