A 23-year-old woman has died of a heart attack after being hit in the neck with a glass bottle as she waited to enter a Brazilian football stadium.
Gabriella Anelli suffered two heart attacks at Santa Casa Hospital in São Paulo on Monday, her family announced on social media.
Anelli was queuing to enter Allianz Parque when fans of her beloved Palmeiras club argued with Flamengo supporters on Saturday night.
Leonardo Santiago, 26, threw a bottle that hit her in the neck, according to São Paulo authorities.
Anelli’s brother, Felipe Anelli, was one of many family members who brought the news of her tragic passing.
“Things are happening beyond our limits of understanding,” he wrote. “I know how much you fought every second and you really were always a warrior. Seek us from heaven and protect our family.”
Gabriella Anelli died Monday after two heart attacks at a hospital in São Paulo, Brazil. The 23-year-old was waiting to enter Allianz Parque, the home of her favorite club, Palmeiras, when two fans chased down two rival Flamengo supporters. During a brawl, Flamengo fan Leonardo Santiago threw a glass bottle that hit Anelli in the neck, forcing her to be rushed to a local hospital, where she underwent emergency surgery.
Smoke hangs in the air after police in Brazil used pepper spray and stun grenades to control rival fans fighting at a soccer stadium
Anelli was rushed to hospital, where she underwent surgery on Saturday night, Felipe Anelli told Brazilian news outlet G1.
“I just want justice done. A man with little brains in his head wouldn’t do such a thing,’ he said.
“The family’s pain is immeasurable,” Anelli’s niece, Mariana Anelli, wrote on social media. “You cannot believe in so much evil in this world and justice is so lacking in Brazil. Our family doesn’t deserve to go through this mourning.”
Anelli, her brother said, was a longtime fan of Palmeiras and grew up attending games with her parents.
She overcame health problems, had heart surgery as a little girl and overcame lung problems.
“This girl was a warrior,” her grandfather Luiz Nery told reporters.
Felipe Anelli (left) with his sister Gabriela Anelli (right), a longtime fan of Brazilian football club Palmeiras
Santiago was arrested on the spot, police said. He appeared in court on Monday and was charged with murder, police chief Cesar Saad said.
“We have several mobile phone images and we use the facial recognition system so that other supporters can be identified, so that other people who were in the fight can be identified,” Saad said at a press conference.
Police said Palmeiras fans were waiting outside the ‘A’ gate of the stadium when they saw two Flamengo fans.
Tensions flared when a group of Palmeiras fans chased the two supporters, to which Santiago responded by throwing the bottle that hit Anelli.
Another fan was treated for a non-life-threatening injury.
Police responded to the incident with pepper spray and stun grenades to disperse the two groups.
Gabriela Anelli was struck by a bottle on Saturday night in São Paulo, Brazil, as she waited to enter a football stadium, and died Monday after two heart attacks, her family said
Police in riot gear responded to rioting Flamengo and Palmeiras fans by firing pepper gas and stun grenades
Fans of Palmeiras and Flamengo quarrel in a street in São Paulo on Saturday night
The smoke caused the game to be stopped twice.
Palmeiras released a statement expressing his condolences to Anelli’s family and condemning the fan violence that he said tarnished the sport’s image.
“We cannot accept that a 23-year-old girl is a victim of barbarism in an environment that should be entertainment,” the team said.
“We express our solidarity with the Palmeirense family and demand urgent investigations into this crime, which damages our raison d’être and tarnishes the image of Brazilian football.”