Sao Paulo gang violence death toll put at 187
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-05-27 09:31
The death toll in gang violence in Brazil's business capital, Sao Paulo,
earlier this month was put at 187 on Friday, 35 higher than previously reported.
A public bus burns
after being torched by gangsters, as the unprecedented wave of violence
went into its third day, in the eastern district of Sao Paulo May 15,
2006. Heavily armed gangsters attacked police posts, banks and public
buses around Sao Paulo State for a third night, as the death toll passed
80, the state security office said on Monday.
[Reuters] |
The city's Attorney General's Office said the dead included 123 suspected
gangsters and 23 prisoners as well as 31 policemen and seven other public
officials.
Human rights groups have expressed concern that police used excessive force
and that innocent people were executed in retaliation for killings of officers
by gang members, including those from the First Command of the Capital, or PCC,
gang.
The violence between May 12 and 19 followed the transfer of gang leaders and
members to a remote high-security prison and created panic in the world's
third-largest metropolis with a population of more than 20 million.
Brazilian newspapers have described the police response as "massacres" and
reported that visits to mortuaries showed many of the victims were shot in the
head.
On Friday, the head of Sao Paulo's prison service, Nagashi Furukawa, resigned
citing "personal reasons" amid media reports of disagreement with the state's
public security chief.
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