Spate of Femicides and Domestic Attacks Prompts Arrests, Captures and Custody Orders Across Brazil

Overview

• Federal Highway Police captured Jeferson Silva Amorim in Alagoas on Monday after the Campinas double homicide, with inter-state coordination and toll-road camera data helping track his route.
• In western Bahia, the death of Rhianna, a trans woman, is under investigation as femicide after the suspect was released upon voluntarily presenting to police and confessing, and the state prosecutor’s office and OAB-BA say they are following the case.
• A judge in Ceará converted to preventive detention the custody of Francisco José da Costa Gomes, who was shot and arrested when he attempted to enter a hospital to kill his partner he had already stabbed, an attack carried out in front of the couple’s 7-year-old child.
• In Bauru (SP), José Felipe Candido killed his ex-wife, Jéssica Pereira Silva, and died in a police confrontation hours later, as investigators now examine whether his father and others aided his flight; the victim had a protective order and local protests called attention to the case.
• Other December cases include the arrest of personal trainer Luã França de Carvalho in Espírito Santo after recorded threats, police shooting dead a hostage-taker in Várzea Grande (MT), and new femicides in Duque de Caxias (RJ) and Limeira (SP) with suspects sought or detained.