“I never ran over him,” Marçal said.

He blamed the absent police for what happened in Pio XII. And alcohol.

If he had not been at the bar, Marçal said, he probably would not have gone to the soccer field. He would not be charged with homicide. He would not face three decades away from his children.

“One person feeds off another: ‘Let’s beat him,’ ” Marçal said. “You might not have the courage to do it, but someone else does.”

Shattered Families

José Cantanhede had meant to restore the house he bought a year ago, but it had all been too much for him. He had lost his wife in 2011. Now his eldest son was gone. He sat in his living room, the walls bare except for a clock and two calendars and photos of his granddaughters and the patron saint of Brazil.

He was 60, a laborer. He wore shorts and sat without a shirt, his tanned skin the color of almonds. When he talked about his son, his eyes watered.

“I think anyone would have done what he did in that moment,” José Cantanhede said.

His thoughts circled and collided against themselves. If he had not been sick at home that afternoon, Cantanhede said, he would be dead, too, because he would have gone to the field to defend his son. Why didn’t the police come? Why didn’t any of the players step in and say, wait, stop, this has gone too far?