UPDATE: PSP police arrested the attacker at around midday today (September 12), the police force has announced. Aside from the injuries caused to one of the workers, the man is said to have caused €700 of damages. He is due to appear before a judge tomorrow (September 13)
A viciously violent attack unfolded in Faro on Wednesday (September 11) when a man on conditional release stormed a Social Reintegration and Prison Services office and struck a 57-year-old worker with a crowbar.
The man, who forcibly entered the building, also attempted to assault the service’s coordinator, shattering a glass door in the process.
Pedro Gonçalves, a representative from the union representing workers of the board of social reintegration and prison services, is calling for at least one security guard to be posted at each of these offices.
“We deal with convicted individuals from across the country, and unlike law enforcement, we don’t have any weapons to defend ourselves,” Gonçalves told SIC after the harrowing incident.
In other words, there was no one to stop the crowbar-yielding man who stormed into the building and attacked the first person he saw, a 57-year-old female employee. He then forced his way into an office by breaking the glass door that the office’s coordinator had closed and throwing the crowbar at the coordinator’s head. Luckily, she was able to dodge the weapon as two other employees stopped the man, originally from the Azores and on parole since the start of September after serving five sixths of a 16-year sentence for several crimes, including domestic violence. Days before the incident, he had been demanding housing from the service.
“He made it clear that this was just a warning,” Gonçalves alerted. “Since the minister (of justice) is going to do a study or a report on safety at prisons, she can also do the same for social reintegration teams. The only thing they demand in terms of safety is to have a security guard at the entrance of each unit,” he said, also lamenting that social reintegration workers are the “worst paid” senior technician workers in public administration.
The Faro team, consisting of 14 technicians, attends to up to 100 cases daily. These include minors involved in criminal activity, individuals on conditional release, those under electronic monitoring, and various others in need of supervision.
A criminal complaint has already been lodged against the attacker, which, as SIC points out, could have serious implications on his conditional release.
