Barber Carlos Pina laid to rest on Saturday; Bruno Neto and Fernanda Soares on Sunday
The funerals of the three people shot dead in a troubled Lisbon neighbourhood last Wednesday took place over the weekend, with hundreds attending the ceremony in which barber Carlos Pina was laid to rest at the Alto de São João cemetery, in Penha de França.
The following day, Sunday, came the funerals of the other two victims – Bruno Neto and Fernando Soares (who was expecting the couple’s second child) – in Alenquer.
The first child, now an orphan, is being cared for by relatives who reportedly haven’t yet explained to her that both her parents are dead.
The exact contours of what may have prompted this awful episode are still far from clear. There are theories that point to ‘a settling of scores’, a dispute over drug trafficking, and a mere moment of madness (the main suspect Fernando Silva is known to suffer from ‘social anxiety’, and has been undergoing treatment at Lisbon’s Hospital Júlio de Matos).
What makes the situation even worse is the fact that Silva and all members of his immediate family (mother, father, brother, partner and two children) have ‘vanished’. Their ‘home’ was the Bairro do Vale, where the shootings took place, but they have not been seen since the day of the killings: Silva’s partner having rushed to their daughter’s school after receiving a phone call, taking her out and rushing away, with very little by way of explanation.
No-one seems to know where the family has gone, or even how they are managing.
Police meantime are keeping a presence in the Bairro do Vale as ‘friends of Carlos Pina’ have guaranteed they will not allow the family back.
According to reports, apart from torching two of the suspect’s vehicles on the night after the shootings, ‘friends of Carlos Pina’ have also ‘vowed’ to destroy Fernando Silva’s motorhome. There was even talk last Wednesday of setting light to the family’s home, in a nearby block of flats.
