Brazilians are reacting in shock and anger after a young man was suffocated to death by a security guard in a supermarket in Rio de Janeiro on February 14. When a video filmed by a bystander emerged, it only added fuel to the fire and protests were organised in several different cities. On social media, activists have started using the hashtag #VidasNegrasImportam ("Black Lives Matter”) and encouraging people to share their experiences of racism in Brazil.



The video, which is about two minutes long, shows a security guard named Davi Ricardo Amâncio using his entire body to pin 19-year-old Pedro Henrique Gonzaga to the ground. Amâncio is holding onto Gonzaga’s neck.

Bystanders appear concerned for Gonzaga, who cannot move, and start shouting at the security guard.



“He's fainted!” one person cries. Others chime in, “His hand is purple!” and “He’s unconscious!”



But the security guard doesn’t release the teenager and, instead, says several times, “You’re lying!”



Warning: the following images are shocking







The videos were filmed late morning on Thursday, February 14. Shortly thereafter, Gonzaga was released and taken to hospital, where he died later that afternoon, due to respiratory failure, according to emergency services.



The store where Gonzaga was fatally assaulted said in a statement that the teenager had tried to steal Amâncio’s weapon. Local media outlets managed to get hold of footage from the surveillance cameras to shed some light on what happened before the deadly incident.

The videos show Gonzaga running towards Amâncio. He then stops and talks with the guard and another store employee. A woman comes towards them and, suddenly, for unclear reasons, Gonzaga falls. The two other men pick him up, then he falls again. The rest of the incident doesn’t appear in the footage.





Young black man is suffocated to death, by white security guards, from a supermarket in prime area of ​​Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. #HELP#VidasNegrasImportam #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/TMlceWuHO6 Santiago, Raull. (@raullsantiago) 15 février 2019



According to police, Amâncio "overstepped the boundaries of self-defence". And, despite the fact that Amâncio was arrested immediately after the incident, he was released the same day after paying bail.



Gonzaga’s mother, who witnessed the assault, disputed Amâncio’s version of events and said that her son wasn’t trying to take the guard’s weapon.



More than a few people on Twitter also disputed Amâncio’s story.



"The surveillance camera footage proves that he didn’t have any intention of taking the guard’s weapon,” wrote one Brazilian YouTuber (below).





Vídeo da câmera de segurança provou q não houve tentativa nenhuma de pegar a arma do segurança.



Todo mundo q defendeu o assassino, vcs já estavam errados antes, mas agora torço q o inferno exista só pra ver vcs lá.



pic.twitter.com/AahfkqM5q7 Felipe Neto (@felipeneto) 16 février 2019



"Vidas Negras Importam": a slogan inspired by #BlackLivesMatter



In the days following Gonzaga’s death, protests were organised in cities across Brazil to denounce racist crimes against black Brazilians. Protesters also called on customers to boycott the store that employed Amâncio.





Aconteceu hoje ato na unidade Extra Madalena, em Recife, em repúdio a morte de Pedro Gonzaga, de 19 anos por um segurança da rede de supermercados no Rio de Janeiro.#Vidasnegrasimportam

vídeo: Rayanara Marques pic.twitter.com/zyQf6I25VK Mídia NINJA (@MidiaNINJA) 16 février 2019



During the demonstrations, protesters chanted "Vidas negras importam", a slogan inspired by Black Lives Matter, a hashtag and movement started in the United States to protest police violence against African-Americans.







Many activists drew parallels between Gonzaga’s death and the death of Eric Garner, a black man who was killed by policemen in New York in 2014. During his arrest, Garner was pinned down on the ground in a chokehold. He said, several times, that he wasn’t able to breathe but by the time the police let him go, it was too late.



>> Read on The Observers: Indignation after New Yorker dies following police chokehold



The hashtag #VidasNegrasImportam also spread across social media. Several well-known Brazilians posted about their own experiences of racism using this hashtag, according to Global Voices.



Fioti, a rapper and entrepreneur, tweeted about the first time he was stopped by the police. He was only 11 years old and he “thought he was going to die”.

Meu primeiro enquadro foi com 11 anos de idade, pasmem estava indo para o Shopping D com meu irmão, iamos no cinema. No Ponto de ônibus a polícia na frente de todos nos fez levantar a camiseta e apontou a arma para nós. Eu achei que fosse morrer, esse foi apenas o primeiro. Fioti (@fiotioficial) 16 février 2019



Translated from Portuguese: "The first time that I was stopped by the police, I was 11 years old. I was going to the mall with my brother; we were headed to the cinema. We were near the bus stop when the police, in front of everyone, made us lift up our T-shirts and pointed a gun at us. I thought that I was going to die and that was just the first [time]."

Brazilian rapper MC Carol posted about her first day at school, when she was locked in the bathroom by white classmates.

Esse foi um dois primeiros contatos com o racismo. Na verdade o primeiro foi no PRIMEIRO DIA DE AULA. No primeiro dia eu fui trancada no banheiro por meninas brancas! (Eu já postei sobre isso e eu fui questionada por lembrar disso tão pequena, deve ser pq quando doi muito, marca) pic.twitter.com/c3k5HPXZUu MC Carol (@mc_caroloficial) 17 février 2019



Translation from Portuguese: "That was one of my first experiences with racism… It was my first day of school. On the first day, I was shut in the bathroom by little white girls! [I’ve already posted about this incident and people asked me how I could remember something that happened when I was so small. It must be because when something really hurts, it leaves a scar]."

Brazilian activist Ale Santos posted that "Brazilian racism" creates "the right conditions for violence".





O racismo brasileiro é um crime perfeito: ele cria as condições que espalha a violência e ao invés de curar a sociedade, prefere exterminar os jovens que batem com a descrição racista de um bandido



É um verdadeiro genocídio evidenciado pelas estatísticas #VidasNegrasImportam Ale Santos (@Savagefiction) 15 février 2019



Translation: "Brazilian racism is the perfect crime: it has created the perfect conditions for violence and, instead of healing society, it prefers to exterminate young people who look like the racist idea of a delinquent. It’s a true genocide, demonstrated by statistics.”



A second video emerges of violence towards a black man

A few days later, on February 25, a second video showing police violence towards a black man was posted online. Crispim Terral, a 35-year-old black Brazilian entrepreneur, posted the seven-minute video, which he says shows him being assaulted by police in a bank in the city of Salvador de Bahia.

In his post, Terral says that the incident took place on February 19. He had gone to the bank for the eighth time to try and figure out a problem with bounced cheques. He had been waiting for five hours, but the bank employee kept ignoring Terral and prioritising other customers. Terral tried to speak to the branch manager, insisting that he needed to see someone. Instead, the branch manager called the police to get Terral to leave.



"It’s the 21st century and I was treated brutally. I was clearly a victim of racial prejudice,” Crispim wrote.



Terral’s 15-year-old daughter, who was at the bank with him that day, filmed what happened after the police arrived. Her video shows a police officer knocking her father to the ground and putting him in a chokehold. After the video was posted online, authorities opened an investigation into the incident.





Screengrab of Terral’s Facebook post.