RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Viviane Goncalves cries softly as she explains why she believes her husband was killed.
The 32-year-old widow says she thinks military police shot him in revenge after one of their helicopters crashed Nov. 19 while helping an anti-drug operation near the City of God slum where the couple lived, killing all four officers on board.
Goncalves said her bricklayer husband Rogerio Alberto de Carvalho had nothing to do with it. He left for work that Saturday and turned up the following day with a bullet in the back of his head, one of at least seven people found killed in the slum the morning after the chopper crashed for unknown reasons. Residents blame police for the subsequent deaths, but authorities deny responsibility in the killings that occurred during a crackdown that started that night and continued for several days.
“Police want to blame us for something that doesn’t have anything to do with us,” said Goncalves, who has an 8-year-old son. “They have destroyed my family.”
Officers say the operation had nothing to do with the helicopter crash and they were merely going after criminals in the notorious Rio de Janeiro slum portrayed in the Academy Award-nominated 2002 film, “Cidade de Deus.” Police have released statements listing the arms and drugs seized, including automatic rifles, pistols, ammunition and large quantities of cocaine and marijuana.