04/20/2024 – 11:19
The body of Paulo Roberto Braga, an elderly man who was taken lifeless to a bank in Bangu, in Rio de Janeiro, will be buried this Saturday, 20th, at the Cemetery in Campo Grande, west of the capital of Rio de Janeiro. The burial will begin at 11:30 am, according to the cemetery itself.
The burial takes place four days after the case that gained national repercussion last Tuesday, 16th. Bank employees filmed the moment when Érika de Souza Vieira Nunes, 43 years old, tried to get Braga to sign a loan for R$17,000, but he seemed to be already dead. She called the elderly man “Uncle Paulo”.
The Emergency Medical Care Service (Samu) was called, and a doctor confirmed his death while still at the agency. Érika was arrested red-handed for the crimes of theft by fraud and vilification of a corpse and has been detained since Tuesday, 16th.
Last Thursday, the 18th, the court maintained Érika's arrest after a custody hearing at the José Frederico Marques prison, in Benfica, in the north of Rio.
Judge Rachel Assad da Cunha attended the MP-RJ and stated that, from what can be seen in the videos, Érika was the one who wanted to make the loan, even though the money did not belong to her. The judge also noted that the prisoner seemed more concerned about the loan than about her uncle's health and that the possibility of having taken Paulo Robert already dead to the bank “makes the action more repugnant and macabre”.
Images from security cameras in the shopping center where the bank branch frequented by Érika and Paulo Roberto are located show the woman circulating around the place with the elderly man motionless in a wheelchair.
The video shows Paulo with his head down at times while Érika takes them towards the bank, where she would try to finalize a loan in her uncle's name.
A man who helped put the elderly man in a car using an app before arriving at the agency, however, said in a statement to the police that Paulo Roberto Braga, aged 68, “was still breathing and had strength in his hands” when he was placed in the vehicle.
The driver of the vehicle, in turn, told the agents that the elderly man “even held the car door” as he got out. The statements corroborate Érika's defense version, that the man arrived at the bank branch alive.
On Wednesday, the 17th, the app driver who was called to pick up Braga and Erika, and a motorcycle taxi driver who helped put the elderly man in the car, gave statements to the Civil Police.
The motorcycle taxi driver said he knew Braga and that he was called by Érika to help put him in the car at around 12:20 pm. In the statement, he stated that when he entered the house the elderly man was in bed. When he held him, the motorcycle taxi driver told police, “he was still breathing and had strength in his hands.”
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