Brazilian police are investigating the torture, then the murder of two young black men who were allegedly handed over to drug traffickers by supermarket guards after stealing meat, in Salvador de Bahia (northeast).
Bruno and Yan Barros, 29 and 19, a man and his nephew, were reportedly killed
“because of an alleged theft of food.
According to their family, security guards handed them over to drug traffickers, ”
the Bahia State Human Rights Secretariat explained in a statement.
Read also: Death of a black man beaten in Brazil: a Carrefour official arrested
According to testimonies from relatives of the victims to local media, the uncle sent messages to a friend asking her to borrow 700 reais (around 107 euros) to reimburse the packages of meat he allegedly stole and prevent the security guards do not hand them over to drug traffickers.
Their bodies were found in another neighborhood in Salvador, with marks of torture and gunshot wounds.
Police said in a statement that the images from the surveillance cameras were
"being analyzed"
and that
"supermarket employees, relatives of the victims and other witnesses"
had been heard.
But the family's version that the young men had been handed over to drug traffickers by security guards has yet to be confirmed by investigators.
The Atakadao Atakarejo supermarket group assured
"its full cooperation in the framework of the police investigation"
and expressed its solidarity with the victims.
Read also: Brazil: indignation after the death of a black man beaten by white guards
The media recalled a case of violence against a black youth by supermarket security guards which had aroused much emotion in Brazil. Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas was beaten to death by two white security agents in the parking lot of a Carrefour supermarket in Porto Alegre (south), the day before Black Conscience Day, in November 2020.