For the second time in a week PSP agents have shot a suspect dead.
This time it was a “violent” giant of a man who apparently advanced on agents as they prepared to question him about an outstanding warrant for his arrest.
With an axe in one hand, and a knife in the other, 52-year-old Nelson Fossa, from Guinea – described as 2 metres tall and weighing 100 kg – slashed one of the agents in the neck “centimetres from his jugular vein”, and twice in the chest, writes Correio da Manhã.
Despite his injuries, agent Godinho managed to reach his service revolver and fire two shots.
One of the bullets hit Fossa in the leg, two hit one of his knees and the fourth entered his chin, “lodging in his head”.
The PSP has classified the incident as “legitimate defence”. It is a miracle, says CM, that agent Godinho was not killed himself.
His colleague, agent Lourenço was hurt but nothing like as badly as Godinho, and has been released after treatment in hospital.
PJ police were called in to gather forensic evidence as the story splashed across the nation’s media in the wake of the shooting last week by PSP agents of a 16-year-old boy (click here).
But while the reason for the first death is still under investigation, this second incident appears to be very much more cut and dried.
Superintendent Viola da Silva has told reporters “the options were kill or be killed”.
Fossa was well-known for violent outbursts, and according to CM, he was also the subject of expulsion order as he was living in Portugal illegally.
Fossa had apparently lived in the Vale de Amoreira and Barreiro areas of Moita for some years, says the paper, and already had at least four complaints for aggression against him.
His death came yesterday (Wednesday) morning, as agents Godinho and Lourenço were on their way to enforce Fossa’s outstanding warrant for arrest.
