Spanish pensioner shot dead on 'favela' tour in Rio de Janeiro
Tuesday, October 24, 2017 @ 1:34 PM
A SPANISH tourist has been shot dead by a police officer whilst touring one of the most notorious favelas in the former Brazilian capital of Rio de Janeiro.
María Esperanza Ruiz Jiménez, 67, from El Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz province) was in a Fiat Freemont in the Largo do Boiadeiro neighbourhood, a busy shopping district at the foot of the Rocinha slum, or favela, at around 10.30 local time (14.30 mainland Spain time) when the driver allegedly failed to stop as ordered by the armed police who are permanently on duty in the deprived outskirts of the city.
The driver, an Italian who had lived in Rio for four years, said he did not remember any order to stop, nor jumping a police checkpoint.
Police did not realise the car was carrying holidaymakers on a 'favela tour' – which are growing in popularity in Brazil's largest cities – until it had passed.
According to the driver, he heard shots and accelerated to get away from them, then realised that one of the Spaniards in the car had a bullet wound in her neck.
María Esperanza was travelling with her brother and his wife, who are waiting at the Miguel Couto Hospital in the south of the city for her body to be released.
CCTV footage released by the Brazilian newspaper Globo shows the car being driven down the street in Rocinha, the sound of gunfire, and several police officers running towards the vehicle.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com