A police manhunt was still ongoing as we went to press over a bizarre murder case centring on a two-for-one cake promotion. According to news reports, a reserve army sergeant shot Manuel João Martins five times at his Lua de Mel (Honeymoon) café in Benfica on Monday night because the promotion was not clearly explained and he had turned up 20 minutes before it was valid.
The sergeant, apparently known for violence with which he often “resolves arguments”, did not shoot Martins there and then. He is understood to have gone away after being told the promotion only ran between 8pm and 9pm – returning at the end of the evening, to “drink a coffee and explain that he had felt cheated”.
He is then described as leaving the café to retrieve a 9mm pistol from his car with which he returned to shoot Martins five times at close range.
Eye-witnesses saw the man “leave the pastelaria calmly”, get into his car and drive off.
He drove to the Estrada de Benfica, where he “accelerated” and, for the time being, this is the last time he appears to have been seen.
Meantime, INEM and police were called to the Lua de Mel by a terrified worker but there was nothing they could do. Martins – a family man about to become a grandfather for the first time – was already dead.
