The central administrative court of the south has finally ordered the State to pay €66,000 in damages to a man who was shot ‘by mistake’ by GNR police and has had to have part of his intestines removed as a result.
According to national tabloid Correio da Manhã, José Fernandes suffers 30% incapacity as a result of his injuries.
He was shot in the stomach when he was only 23 by plainclothes police officers who had been called to his father’s farm to investigate a situation of cattle-rustling.
The situation was confused, explains CM: José took the officers for the rustlers, and vice-versa.
The young man was in his vehicle, patrolling the property for the thieves when the agents ordered him to stop. As he tried to accelerate away, they shot ‘to stop him’, hitting him in the stomach.
What is even more shocking than the time it has taken for the Fernandes’ family to be compensated for a clear police error is the fact that, in this case, the GNR agents themselves were not held to blame.
This is in stark contrast to how a colleague in Loures has been treated for fatally injuring a hidden passenger in a runaway car during a police chase (click here).
