PSP police have arrested Xavier Damião, a 28-year-old man suspected of fatally stabbing his father and pregnant sister in Santa Cruz (Torres Vedras) in a “rage attack” related to drug abuse.
The young man was caught by chance in Amadora in the early hours of Monday morning (November 16) when he was hiding behind a car with another man at a time when police were out checking if people were respecting nighttime curfews.
He had been on the run since Saturday when the crimes took place.
The horrific ordeal happened in the family house where he lived with his father, 61, and sister, 37.
It is unknown what led Xavier Damião to commit the crimes, but his mother told CMTV on Monday that she knew what her son was “capable of” and that she had already warned the family that this could happen.
“I warned the father of my children: ‘Beware, he could kill you both. He is sick’. I even asked my daughter to come live with me, but she told me ‘If he attacks dad, I’ll be there to protect him’,” Maria do Rosário Silva told CMTV.
It is believed Damião asked his father for money to buy drugs. The 61-year-old man, a local fishmonger who was “tired of paying for his son’s drug addiction”, may have refused which could have led to his son’s homicidal rage.
The suspect is believed to have stabbed his father and pregnant sister several times, “using extreme violence”, according to a police source. Xavier Damião is said to have then taken his sister’s car keys and fled.
The mother also admitted that her son had already acted violently towards her before.
“He spent a week at my house, and I warned him drugs were not allowed in the house. He called me names and hit me,” she said.
Xavier Damião is said to have been dealing with depression and a few months ago had even been treated at Lisbon’s Júlio de Matos psychiatric hospital for a drug-induced psychosis.
He had recently been released from a drug rehabilitation centre but apparently stopped taking his medication.
Writes CM, his drug habit started with cannabis, but he eventually moved on to harder drugs and started taking LSD and other synthetic drugs.
Friends and neighbours, however, described him as a “calm person who did not cause trouble with anyone on the street”.
According to the national tabloid, Damião works at a “gaming company” and has a passion for cars.
