At least two of victims shot in head
Three people (two men and a pregnant woman) have been shot dead in a barbers shop, in Lisbon today.
The suspects, three men, were last seen heading in a vehicle in the direction of Santa Apólonia station, a PSP source has told Correio da Manhã.
According to the source, police were alerted to a shoot-out taking place in the shop in Henrique Barrilaro Ruas street, at 1.25pm.
“When we arrived, we verified three individuals shot showing no vital signs. Two had been shot in the head”, said the source. It has since transpired that all three victims were shot in the head.
Three male suspects, “possibly the authors of the shots, made off” in the direction of Santa Apolónia.
For the time being, police have little idea what may be behind the incident; whether the victims and suspects were known to each other, or whether this was something ‘random’.
Because this is a case of murder, it has passed to PJ police. A security perimeter has been set up meantime as forensic teams gather evidence.
UPDATES: The incident is being described as a “disagreement in a barber’s shop”.
The three dead are a couple (Bruno Mota (this name has since changed to ‘Neto’) and Fernanda Júlia), and the barber, 43-year-old Carlos Pina (the father of five children, and already a grandfather, according to Correio da Manhã, later amended to the father of six children).
According to SIC Notícias, Pina was cutting the hair of Bruno Mota (described as a taxi driver), who was accompanied by his pregnant partner Fernanda, when the three men entered the salon and asked for a hair cut.
The men are described as “not having liked the reply of the 43-year-old barber”. One of them, armed with a gun, shot Pina, Mota and Fernanda at close range, before making off with the men he arrived with.
CMTV is giving a more detailed account of the incident, saying that police already have details of the matriculation plate of the car in which the suspects fled. They have also been given information on the identities of the three men involved. The shooter, it transpires, is already ‘known to police’, aged in his 30s, and has a record for domestic violence.
SIC Notícias later referred to Carlos Pina also having a “criminal past for drug trafficking and the illegal possession of a weapon”.
Right now, detectives are interviewing another barber, who was working in the shop at the time, and witnessed the shootings.
One report suggests the shooter was seen in the barber’s shop yesterday, asking for a haircut. At the time, Pina was unable to attend him/ didn’t have time for him, and this appears to be why he returned today, “angry and already armed”, and with two others.
CMTV adds that a number of local people who attended the scene have had to be treated for shock.
With graphic photographs of the scene already circulating over social media, one commentator has written: “Shooting in Lisbon kills three. One of the worst criminal incidents in 50 years. Lisbon turns into a ‘favela’ (the word for a poor Brazilian neighbourhood).
Two of the victims (Bruno and Fernanda) ended up dying in the street. They were shot at close range, but did not die immediately. Apparently, they were still alive when first responders reached the scene, but could not be saved. They leave behind a young child who in one fell swoop has become an orphan.
CMTV’s reporter Tânia Laranjo has said this afternoon that from everything known so far, the three men on the run “have very little to lose (…) they are already looking at maximum jail terms for murder/ being accomplices to murder (25 years)”, and could thus potentially be extremely dangerous if approached by police, particularly if they are still armed.
natasha.donn@portugalresident.com
