THE WIFE of a Lisbon taxi driver killed with three shots in the city’s Parque das Nações on Friday night has been detained by the Polícia Judiciária.
According to police sources, the woman, who is 28, confessed to shooting António José Brito, 50, at 11pm on Friday evening in one of the city’s busiest areas.
The victim, shot once in the head and twice in the chest, was discovered dead in his car by passers by.
Nothing had been removed or stolen from the car, leading colleagues to initially believe that it was either a case of ‘murder to order’ or a ‘settling of scores’.
The case has been handed over for investigation by the Polícia Judiciária, PJ, but both the PJ and PSP have only confirmed the crime without giving any additional information.
However, the PJ had apparently been suspicious of his wife’s silence on the matter and have allegedly discovered since that she had, according to witnesses, threatened her husband at the headquarters of national taxi association ANTRAL, Associação Nacional dos Transportadores em Automóveis Ligeiros.
“On Friday Brito received a telephone call during dinner asking him to go to Avenida João II at a particular hour. It’s strange,” a taxi driver, friend and colleague known as Pereira told daily newspaper Diário Notícias.
Divorce
The murdered man, a taxi driver for 10 years, had an eight-year-old son and was going through a complicated divorce case.
António Brito lived in Loures, worked at night, and often picked up at Lisbon’s Portela airport.He did not belong to any taxi company or cooperative, didn’t have a radio being self employed
and registered.
At the time of going to press, the victim’s wife was considered to be helping police with their enquiries and had not been formally charged with the murder.
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