For the first time since the events of the night of December 21st in Bragança, which resulted in the death of the 21-year-old Cape Verdean student Luís Giovani, PSP has clarified its role in the case, which since December 31st where the young man died, is being investigated by the Judiciary Police.
According to this clarification, two of the young people who were with Luís Giovani Santos Rodrigues on the night he was attacked were identified by PSP agents shortly after the assault and at the place where the assault occurred, but refused to complain or to be taken to hospital. . Later, after his friend had been found unconscious by another patrol car, they would have claimed that they had been lost from him and that the disagreement at the bar, which would have led to aggression abroad, occurred with Luis Giovani.
This statement from PSP also certifies that “from the outset it has taken the necessary steps to investigate the facts and their circumstances, in particular safeguarding the images of the video surveillance systems and promoting the collection of testimonies. Given the knowledge of the death of this citizen, PSP informed the Vila Real Judiciary Police immediately, by virtue of its legal investigative powers. “
This information now provided by PSP contradicts the testimony collected by DN with a person connected to the Lagoa Azul bar, where the altercation took place and outside where the aggression occurred. According to this testimony, of a person who asked not to be identified, the first time that there was a visit of police investigators at the bar and heard of the aggressions that occurred that night was after the death of Luís Giovani, and was the Police Judiciary that requested the video surveillance images of the establishment. Also the fact that a source of the investigating PJ told DN “We arrived 10 days late on the case” seems to indicate that there was no previous investigation on the subject.
Young man was at least half an hour without help
In any case, the PSP communiqué provides for the first time a case timeline: at 3.15 am on Saturday 21 December “the information outside the bar on Avenida Sá Carneiro in Bragança would be a disorder occurs, “he said that,” when the police were turned on, they arrived at the scene at 3:21 pm, having found no disorder outside the bar. “
On site, the statement goes, “There were only two citizens, one of whom informed the police that he was allegedly beaten by a group of young people who were no longer on the scene, not wanting any hospital treatment or criminal proceedings. With the characteristics of the alleged individuals involved in the assaults. , reported by those citizens, the Police immediately, and after collecting all identifications and testimonies, made efforts by the city to locate suspects or possible witnesses, with no results. “
Then the statement said at 3.45 pm “another police officer on patrol in the city” came across “a young man lying on the ground, inanimate and smelling strongly of alcohol from vomiting. in your clothing. ” And informs: “In view of this scenario, at 03h48, the police immediately called the medical assistance – INEM, and the young man was transported by the Fire Department ambulance to the emergency room of the Bragança Hospital Unit which, at about 06h00, contacted the PSP and informed that the young man who had been found by the PSP and who had been admitted there would have been the victim of aggression. The identity of this youth was provided by friends, who attended the place, who also informed that, at 2:30 am, inside another bar, while preparing to leave, the victim had had a disagreement with another group of young people, but that would have been healed. These young people also reported that, when leaving the bar, there were aggressions with a group of 15 to 20 young people, which is why they fled, not knowing where the hospitalized citizen would have gone. “
This statement, which allows us to understand that between the aggression to the youth and the entry into the hospital will have taken more than 30 minutes, answers several of the questions raised in the text published by DN this Wednesday. One of them being at what time the PSP had been informed of the aggression, and if it would not have sought to find the aggressors. Another was about whether there was any complaint regarding the assaults on Luís Giovani (as it turns out, this was from the Bragança Hospital initiative) and what had done to PSP since that night until the PJ took over the case after the death of the young.
Naturally, the DN had tried to clarify these issues with the PSP Board, but the answer was that nothing could be said about the case; The only response was that there were no complaints about aggression against other people (ie the young people accompanying Luís Giovani), information that this statement confirms.
In the early afternoon of Friday, the DN questioned the MAI about this situation and the doubts about the conduct of the PSP between December 21 and 31, when the young man died and the PJ took over the case. The PSP statement came a few hours later.
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