”I have no direction”, says mother of 12-year-old killed in police action in Amazonas

Gleice Lima chorou e pediu justiça durante o enterro do filho, Gabriel Santos (Jander Souza/Revista Cenarium)

July 29, 2021

19:07

Marcela Leiros – from Cenarium

MANAUS – The funeral and burial of teenager Gabriel Santos, 12 years, who had the dream of being a soccer player, were marked by emotion and revolt in the morning of Thursday, 29. The boy was found dead in the river on Wednesday, 28, in the district of Cacau Pirera, in Iranduba, in the metropolitan region of Manaus, after a police action. To CENARIUM, Gleice Lima told about the death of her son and her husband’s arrest, which occurred during the police approach.

“I’m (sic) without my son, without direction, without knowing what to do, and without my husband who is unjustly imprisoned. I lost my son, now the house is just a hole, empty, I don’t even have my husband to give me strength. My life is over. I have lost my son, I have no sense of anything anymore. I just want justice, my son was only 12 years old,” she said during the funeral.

The police action occurred around 1 pm on Tuesday, 27, on 7th street in the Mutirão neighborhood. The family was gathered for lunch when police officers approached the residence. Gabriel fell into the river and his body was found in the water, with marks that the family claims were from shots fired by the police. According to the report of the Forensic Medical Institute (IML), the boy died on the spot, and the cause of death was acute hemorrhagic anemia, a consequence of “aggression with a firearm”.

Friends and family gathered in grief to say goodbye to the teenager (Jander Souza/Revista Cenarium)

Condolences

In the small wooden house of Gabriel’s maternal grandfather, located next to his daughter’s house, friends and family gathered to say their goodbyes to the boy who was already fighting to fulfill his dream of becoming a soccer player. He played on the Athletes with Christ team and the grandfather remembered, with emotion, when his grandson said that he already wanted to work to help his mother.

“They ended my grandson’s dream. I calculated 17 policemen, all shooting. They claimed that there were drugs here, that there was a fugitive. He was a nervous child, he couldn’t see fighting, confusion, every night he would ask why people die. He always liked to say that he was going to work so he could help his mother,” said the teenager’s grandfather, Pedro Ozanar.

Pedro Ozanar shows the Forensic Medical Institute (IML) report of the 12-year-old teenager (Marcela Leiros/Cenarium)

During the funereal parade through the streets of the Cacau Pirera district, hundreds of people also accompanied and asked for justice.

Watch the video

Funereal parade in Cacau Pirera, in Iranduba, Amazonas (Marcela Leiros/Cenarium)

Statements

The Secretary of Public Safety of Amazonas (SSP) said, in a statement, that the police forces went to the residence after a complaint about the presence of a fugitive on the location. According to the department, the police officers were received by gunfire. Gabriel’s stepfather, Danrley Sullivan Passos Maullmann, was arrested with a firearm and three bullets, three of them intact and three fired, according to the document.

The note also states that the Secretary of Security, Colonel Louismar Bonates, determined to the General Internal Affairs of the Security System to open a procedure to investigate the case.