A mother and her teenage daughter died Sunday after being hit by a motorist fleeing suspected cell phone thieves in Brazil.
João Barbosa told São Paulo Civil Police investigators that he was in his vehicle when a suspect grabbed his friend’s phone and he heard someone say they were going to open fire.
The driver, 30, said he confused the brake pedal with the accelerator pedal when the vehicle took off down a street in the coastal municipality of Praia Grande, São Paulo.
Surveillance video shows Barbosa’s truck following the suspect, 20-year-old Claudio da Silva, who was flagging him down.
Barbosa hit da Silva from behind and then jumped the curb and crashed into Carla Queiroz, 38, and her 13-year-old daughter, whose name has not been released, while they were riding their bicycles.
Queiroz was pinned against a wall and her chest and skull were crushed. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Her daughter was trapped under the vehicle and died in an ambulance while being rushed to an area hospital.
A pedestrian was also struck on the sidewalk and suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Claudio da Silva (circled) was seen on a surveillance camera racing on a bicycle while being chased by João Barbosa (the driver of the vehicle at bottom right) after his friend’s cell phone was stolen and then hit da Silva before crashing into Carla Queiroz. 38, and his 13-year-old daughter, who died
Carla Queiroz was riding a bicycle with her daughter when they were hit by the driver of a vehicle chasing a suspected cell phone thief in Praia Grande, Brazil, on Sunday. The 38-year-old mother died at the scene and her 13-year-old son died in an ambulance.
The 13-year-old girl received medical attention from paramedics while being rushed to a local hospital, but died before arriving.
Barbosa was arrested on murder charges and remained in preventive detention.
Da Silva was arrested for robbery and also remained in prison before his trial.
Da Silva told investigators that Barbosa approached him near a beach and accused him of stealing a necklace from him the day before.
He claimed that Barbosa approached him in the vehicle with two other women and pointed a gun at him.
Da Silva added that he tried to escape on a stranger’s bicycle before Barbosa caught up with him and ran him over.
Claudio da Silva is surrounded by police in Praia Grande, a coastal town in the southeastern Brazilian city of São Paulo, on Sunday, moments after he had allegedly stolen a man’s cell phone, starting a wild chase captured by a camera that showed him being hit from behind. a van driven by the friend of the robbery victim, who also ran over and killed a mother and her daughter
João Barbosa’s vehicle became trapped between a light pole and the door of a residence in Praia Grande, Brazil, on Sunday after jumping the curb after rear-ending a bicycle theft suspect and crashing into a mother and her daughter who were riding their own bicycles. the sidewalk
According to the 2024 Brazilian Public Security Yearbook, at least 1 million mobile phones were stolen or stolen in the South American nation in 2023, an average of one mobile device every 33 seconds.
São Paulo authorities recorded 137,891 mobile phone thefts last year.
In July, a 17-year-old was caught on camera snatching a 71-year-old man’s cell phone while he was talking on a street corner and was then hit by a bus.
The teenager managed to get out from under the bus and was taken to a hospital, where he died.