From 2007 to 2008, serial killings of Gay men startled the whole city of San Paolo, Brazil. It was reported by investigators that the killings occurred during the Great LGBT Parade and took place in “The Paturis Park” because of which it also has the name “Paturis Park murders”.
As per the report, there were 13 murders and almost all victims were murdered by gunshots. The case is still unsolved.
Overview
Among several countries, Brazil was considered to be one of the most friendly countries for the LGBT Community. Seemingly it was amazing to notice that Brazil is also considered to be one among those where crime against the LGBT is widespread.
By 2005, new laws against the LGBT were modified by the then President and made it more friendly but still homophobic people are there to shatter the enacted laws. It is among those countries with the most numbers of LGBT people.
One of the meeting points for gay people in Sao Paolo was Paturis Park where they used to meet and several other businesses were done.
People had hatred towards the LGBT community which sometimes increased to the death of many of the community members.
Paturis Park Murders & Investigation
Exactly after two weeks after the Great LGBT pride, police announced the presence of a serial killer aiming at gay men.
The first killing was reported on 4 July 2007, but it was believed that the killer claiming himself to be the rainbow maniac has already preyed on his first victim when a gay male was found dead in Paturis park in the same manner.
Hence his crime spree can be estimated from February 2007 to August 2008. And total no. of victims were confirmed to be 13.
José Cicero Henrique was the first victim who was killed on 4 July 2007 and police found him half-naked with a bullet on his forehead and his pants to be down till knee.
Furthermore, murders happened, in the same way, making police jobs uneasy. Police officials explained that the killer has murdered all his victims in a brutal way showing his hatred towards the Community.
They stated that 11 of 13 victims were shot dead on the forehead with lowered pants worn by gay males. One was beaten to death and the left one was shot 12 times making the body look like a mesh.
Police started surveilling the Paturis park as all murders occurred there. It was a meeting point for the LGBT Community and was also a Hotspot for prostitutes.
With the surveillance, they had confidence that the culprit might strike again but didn’t get much. After much effort, they found that there might be someone from the department who might be helping the culprit.
With this lead, they investigated inside the department which led them towards a former sergeant currently working as security.
Jairo Francisco Franco was arrested by the officials based on the eyewitnesses. One witness stated the presence of Franco in the park during the murders and another said that he saw a man with the same posture killing a victim.
Shocking Closure of the Case
Though the culprit was Franco, he was released by the court because of the majority vote by jury members i.e. 4 for not guilty and 2 for guilty on 23 August 2011.
This case is one of the examples of non-availability of justice because of wrong decision-making against the LGBT community.
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