Shocking moment police officer throws delivery worker off BRIDGE in Brazil during traffic stop
A police officer was caught on video throwing a man off a bridge in Brazil during a traffic stop, an incident that has sent shockwaves through the country.
Footage of the encounter, leaked on social media, shows military police officer Luan Pereira, 29, holding Marcelo do Amaral, 25, by his shirt in São Paulo on Monday after arresting him for driving a motorcycle without license plates.
Pereira was then seen leading Amaral to the side of the bridge where he lifted one of his legs and then threw him off the bridge as his fellow officers watched.
Witnesses told Brazilian news outlet Metropoles that Amaral ended up in a stream below and was able to get out under his own power and walk up a hill, where he was met by a friend and taken to a local hospital.
The man’s father said Do Amaral was a delivery driver, and witnesses said the motorcyclist questioned the officer about the traffic stop that delayed his delivery.
An initial report from military police showed that police chased several motorcyclists until they reached São Paulo’s Vila Clara neighborhood, where a party was taking place.
While searching for Amaral, police said the partygoers started attacking them with bottles and stones.
As they began to disperse the crowd with pepper spray, a man in the area was shot.
Footage of the encounter, leaked on social media, showed military police officer Luan Pereira, 29, holding Marcelo do Amaral, 25, by his shirt in São Paulo after stopping him for driving a motorcycle without license plates.
Pereira was seen leading Amaral to the side of the bridge where he lifted one of his legs and then threw him off the span as his fellow officers watched.
The police report contained no information about Pereira do throwing Amaral off the bridge.
A witness told Metropoles that Amaral questioned Pereira about whether he would delay his delivery order and expressed concern that he would lose possession of his motorcycle.
Pereira and 12 other military police officers assigned to a battalion in the town of Diadema have been relieved of duty as part of the investigation.
Do Amaral’s father, Antonio do Amaral, told the Jornal Nacional newspaper that his son had no criminal record.
‘He’s doing well, but we haven’t been able to talk to him. It is unacceptable,” he said.
‘The police are there to defend the people, not to do what they did. A worker, a boy… He has no involvement, no criminal record, nothing. I want an explanation from this police officer and why he did this.”
São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas condemned Pereira’s tactics and said he was not worthy of being a member of the armed forces.
‘The São Paulo Military Police is an institution that above all offers professionalism when it comes to protecting people. The police take to the streets to tackle crime and make people feel safe,” De Freitas wrote in an X-post on Tuesday.
“Those who would go so far as to throw someone off a bridge are clearly not fit to wear this uniform,” he added.
Luan Pereira of the São Paulo Military Police and eleven other officers were relieved of duty following the incident
The man’s father said Do Amaral was a delivery driver, and witnesses said the motorcyclist questioned the officer about the traffic stop that delayed his delivery
In a statement, São Paulo Attorney General Paolo Costa described the incident as “shocking and absolutely unacceptable!” and said a special task force would lead the investigation.
“There is no other way to classify the footage of the moment a military police officer threw a man from the top of a bridge last Monday,” Costa said.
“The images released by the press show that the suspect was already under the control of the security officers, who had the functional duty to take him unharmed to a police station so that the incident could be recorded.”
According to data from the São Paulo state government, Pereira is part of the military police motorcycle patrol unit and earns a monthly salary of 5,300 reals, or about $878.
New outlet UOL reported that Pereira was involved in the March 2023 fatal shooting of 31-year-old Maycon Valério, who was chased in the town of Diadema for riding a motorcycle at high speed and without a helmet.
Valério was able to abandon the motorcycle and led Pereira on a foot chase before allegedly pointing a gun at him.
Pereira responded by shooting him twelve times. Valério was rushed to an area hospital, where he died.
Pereira was under investigation by the São Pablo State Ministry at the time.
He was acquitted in January after it emerged that he had acted in self-defence.