Family of man killed in upscale Salvador neighborhood says he was a car keeper
In an interview with Bahia Meio Dia, a program on TV Bahia, Florisvaldo Conceição said that he does not believe that his brother tried to rob the suspects in the beating, but rather that he asked the boys for a cigarette.
Among those suspected of the crime are two former musicians from the Bahia Symphony Orchestra (Osba). This Wednesday, the four involved remain in prison.
“There’s no way they could do that to a young man like that, who has a family, saying he lives on the street. He didn’t live on the street, he has a house, he has a family,” said the victim’s brother.
Willys Santos da Conceição was arrested in 2020 and sentenced to six years in prison for the crime of theft. He stayed in the Mata Escura Penitentiary Complex for two years and was being processed in a semi-open regime.
“He was already arrested for theft, but the person’s past doesn’t condemn. What comes now is the present, of the person maturing, looking for the improvement of being there working, giving their best”, commented the brother.
Florisvaldo Conceição also said that he saw a photo of his dead brother’s body. According to him, the victim’s face was disfigured, which serves as a counter to what was reported by the suspects, that they had simply immobilized the victim.
“When I saw the photo of my brother, when they showed it to me, I saw that his face was destroyed. If they did something cowardly like that, they have to pay for what they did”, he lamented.
The victim was undocumented at the time of the crime and was identified using his fingerprint.
The victim’s brother also said that Willys Santos da Conceição lived with him in the Fazenda Coutos neighborhood, in the suburbs of Salvador and left behind a 3-year-old son. When he was younger, he participated in Projeto Axé, where he played the repique.
“Now a 3-year-old child is going to look for his father and find out how?” he asked.
The man’s body will be buried on Thursday morning (28), at 10 am, at the Plataforma Cemetery, in the suburb of Salvador.
Musicians suspended from Osba
On that occasion, ATCA also informed the decision to suspend the Osba Easter Concert “in respect of the events mentioned”. The event would be held on Thursday (28), in the theater’s Choir Room.
The two were arrested in the act on Saturday (23), along with Marcelo da Cunha Rodrigues Machado, Lincoln’s boyfriend, and Sérgio Ricardo Souza Menezes, a resident of the region who became involved in the case when he passed by the place.
The circumstances of the crime
Information released so far indicates that Laércio and the couple Lincoln and Marcelo were leaving a snack bar in the region, around 4 am, when they were allegedly approached by the victim of the beating. At that time, the man had announced a robbery and the three reacted.
A resident of the region, Sérgio was passing by the place and would have joined the group in the attack.
Other residents reported that they heard screams and called the Military Police. The agents arrived at the scene and arrested the four people involved in the act.
The suspects’ defenses do not speak of beatings. Lawyer for the three young people, Vinícius Dantas said that his clients immobilized the man.
“This boy tried to rob my clients, he attacked my clients, who reacted, immobilized him, called 190, called the police, waited for the police to arrive at the scene. At that moment, they released the boy for the police to immobilize, he was still with life, but before the police touched him, he died”, he explained.
Danilo Silva, lawyer for the resident who got involved in the case when he was passing by the place, said that his client tried to break up the confusion and also called 190. According to the defender, the man told the police: “I tried to give help here, but it seems that it was erased.”
In a note initially sent to the press, the Associação Amigos do Teatro Castro Alves (ATCA) informed that it would wait for the investigations to progress before taking a position again and highlighted that the crime took place outside the musicians’ work environment.
Although they identified and detained the suspects, the Civil Police did not release any further information about the case. The crime is investigated by the Department of Homicide and Personal Protection (DHPP), responsible for clarifying the circumstances and motivations behind the attacks.
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