Images from the Internal Surveillance Service record the moment prison officer Gilson Junior dos Santos shot a neighbor inside a supermarket in Marilia, inside São Paulo. The victim, Johnny da Silva Sarmiento, survived.
This case occurred on the 15th in the Taost Network Unit, and the photos were obtained by Bound This Thursday (27th).
When contacted, SAP (Prison Administration Secretariat) did not respond as of publishing this text. The Taost Network said that it confirms “that it is cooperating with the investigations and remains at the disposal of the authorities to obtain any clarifications.”
The target of the preventive arrest warrant, the prison officer, is on the run. His lawyer, Jader Gaudencio Filho, told the report that the defense is cooperating with the investigation and that he has filed a subpoena before the TJ-SP (São Paulo Court of Justice) requesting the cancellation of the preventive measure.
According to the lawyer, the prison officer was threatened by the victim, and a threat report was filed against him in 2018.
The photos show the dynamics of the accident that occurred in the early evening.
Gilson entered the supermarket next to the woman at 6:56 p.m. Three minutes later, his neighbor found Johnny in one of the establishment’s corridors. At that moment they both started to feel strange towards each other.
A few meters away from each other, they began exchanging insults, and the agent even put his hand on his waist. At one point, Johnny signals to advance against Gilson and is restrained by the comrade next to him at that moment.
Seconds later, the victim searches for a supermarket security guard and speaks to him for just over a minute. This security guard then accompanies you while you shop.
At approximately 7:02 p.m., Johnny went into the hallway next to the security guard and showed something to the professional by pointing with his finger. The photos don’t show what was at the end of that section, but seconds later, at 7:03 p.m., he and the victim found each other again in the produce section. They both argue and the security guard stops the victim.
The shots came at 7:04 p.m., when Gilson entered one of the hallways and saw Johnny on the other side of the venue. The agent ran towards him, pulled his gun, evaded the security guard who accompanied the victim, and shot him.
Chaos occurs within seconds: customers and employees lie down and try to hide while others seek shelter in other sections of the supermarket.
Johnny tries to run, but is kicked and falls into the place where one of the cashier’s chairs is. Gilson kicks the victim twice, including one in the face, and leaves the establishment.
There is no information on how many shots were fired, but three of them hit Johnny. He was taken to Hospital das Clínicas de Marília and underwent surgery. He left the ICU last Monday (24th) and is in stable condition today.
The friction between an agent and his neighbor is not new. In 2018, the SAP server registered a police report against the resident claiming that he was blocked by a motorcycle he was driving when he arrived at his residence.
“When the author closed his car on a public road, he made a gesture resembling that of grabbing a firearm, and told the victim that ‘the prison officer must die’ and that ‘the men from the southern district and from Nova Marilia (the municipal district) would settle the score with him,’” the incident stated at the time.
The prison officer’s defense stated: “Gilson had actually been threatened by Johnny for some time, a fact repeated by Johnny in the history of the episode inside the supermarket, which was trending towards an imminent physical assault.”
He declared, “Gilson has been a criminal police officer for over 20 years and has never had an incident like this. This is an isolated and tragic fact of his life.”
He also said that Johnny “appears today as a victim, with an extensive criminal record, with final and non-appealable convictions, including specifically for menacing and wounding offences.”
He adds: “There are numerous videos on social networks that show Johnny, with his face partially covered, handling a machete. In other words, given these particularities, given Johnny’s persistence, and given the entire chase inside the supermarket, there was a clear and real fear on the part of Gilson that the threats made by Johnny would be carried out.”
Johnny’s defense said he will not speak publicly at this time.
In the police report on the case, the client’s wife stated that “Johnny provoked Gilson and threatened him, saying he would kill him.” She also stated that “the dispute between Johnny and Gilson began when (her husband) tried to intervene in a fight between Johnny and another neighbor.”
Despite his absence, the prison officer wrote a letter to the judiciary in which he expressed his willingness to cooperate with the investigations if the pretrial detention was cancelled. His lawyer handed over the weapon used in the incident on November 19, four days after the incident.