Two military police officers were arrested on Monday (24th) on suspicion of raping a teenager and robbery in the eastern zone of São Paulo.
It was the victim herself and a couple of friends who contacted police officers to report what had happened. The mother of the 17-year-old girl gave a statement at the 24th Police District (Ponte Rasa). She said her daughter was threatened with a firearm and raped.
The military police officers, whose names were not released, left the police station without handcuffs and were taken in two vehicles from the Military Police Internal Affairs office to Romão Gomes prison, in the northern zone.
In a statement, the Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos) administration said that the Military Police does not tolerate misconduct and acted firmly to provide a prompt response to the case, with the immediate presentation of the two officers accused of the crimes to the Civil Police. "The case is being investigated with the utmost rigor through a Military Police Inquiry (IPM) and is also under investigation by the Civil Police."
A friend who was accompanying the teenager at the time of the crime reported the incident to investigators. According to her, the trio was at a wine shop at a gas station on Avenida Itaquera when they encountered two men, who would turn out to be off-duty police officers. After talking, the strangers invited the group to go somewhere else — an invitation accepted by all three friends.
They then stopped at a McDonald's on Avenida Jacu-Pêssego to eat. On the way out, the men offered to drop them near their homes, but the route taken did not match what was expected, and the pair's behavior changed.
According to the account, the men showed sexual interest in the two women, but were rejected by them. One of the men then drew a weapon and announced a robbery, demanding their cell phones. The young man accompanying the two friends managed to hide his own phone and told the assailants he did not have one.
Also according to the account, the men forced the two young women to throw their bags and other belongings out of the car window — an order that was complied with. The vehicle drove along several roads before stopping on a vacant lot in the area known as Pantanal, in Vila Jacuí. There, one of the men ordered the couple of friends to get out of the car, while the other remained in the vehicle with the teenager.
The friend who gave the statement said she did not witness the sexual violence, but learned of it from the victim's own account, given afterwards. According to her, the two friends remained at a distance, crying and distraught, and avoided listening to what was happening in the car.
The friends said they had memorized part of the car's license plate — the letter F and the numbers 6 and 8 — and identified the model as a gray Volkswagen Fox, a vehicle said to belong to someone in one of the officers' circle of acquaintances.
After the crime, the suspects resumed driving with the three friends, before eventually returning the victims to the vacant lot and abandoning them there. The three climbed over a wall, spotted a Military Police vehicle, and asked for help.
