AUGUST 10, 2005
Posted September 8, 2005
Wladimir de Souza, Diário de S.Paulo
ATTACKED
Souza, a photojournalist who works for the São Paulo-based daily Diário de S.Paulo, was attacked by a police officer.
Souza was covering the detention of an alleged drug dealer by the police’s Narcotics Investigation Department (DENARC), when he was attacked by a police officer named Antonio Honório, who was questioning the suspect. According to Souza, Honório, thinking he had been photographed, went toward him yelling he was a police officer, and broke his camera’s flash.
The police officer’s superiors came to see what was happening, offered to compensate Souza for his equipment, and asked him to forget the incident. Souza received a new flash and his lawyer filed a complaint with the Civil Police Auditor. As of late August, he had not heard from the Civil Police Auditor.