Family and friends of the 16-year-old shot in the head during altercations with PSP agents in Gondomar on Tuesday are demanding answers.
They want to know why André Gomes had to die in such a desperate fashion.
“The PSP is here to defend us, not to kill us,” friend Ulisses Fernandes has told reporters.
“All this because he (André) took part in a raid? Police agents are trained to know how to deal with these kind of situations. He didn’t deserve to die like this.”
For now, there is no suggestion that Gomes was armed.
As we explained in our cover story this week, the youth was in the company of three others suspected of having stolen a tobacco vending machine from a nearby café.
Police who came upon the youths by surprise found their patrol car rammed by the car driven by one of the members of the group, and it is as a result of this that ‘warning shots’ were fired.
Subsequent reports have suggested the youths made off on foot, with police agents on their trail.
As it was, two got away and the third, 19-year-old Alexandre Maia, has already appeared in court and been released without bail restrictions.
Maia is understood to be facing charges of criminal damage and resistance of arrest.
While Gomes is to be buried today, friends are telling the media that “the PSP agent who did this has to pay. (André) was a minor”.
Ulisses Fernandes claims the boy had “never been involved in anything like this before”, while another friend, Manuel Pedro, has said the community of Cerco do Porto – where André lived – are “demanding justice”.
With an inquiry ongoing as to how Gomes was killed, reports say the agent who fired the fatal shot has been put on extended leave.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
