Fabrício Ribeiro, a transport businessman and driver, told Fantástico, on TV Globo, the moments of terror he witnessed during the ambush by members of Mancha Alviverde (Palmeiras fans) against the Mafia Azul (from Cruzeiro), in Mairiporã ( SP), on the 27th.
Ribeiro is one of the partners in the company that rented the buses to the Blue Mafia. He was on the bus that didn’t catch fire, but was hit by fireworks and vandalized.
“They broke the windshield, they broke the window of the bus, on the side there,” he said. “We saw people coming running, [nossa] direction. I imagined it could be a crowd fight, but we wanted to get out, get out of the place alive,” he continued.
“I passed, the other bus was already on fire. You see, not being able to do anything, right? The feeling of impotence is great”, he stressed.
Another company bus was driven by Lucas Souza de Paula.
He describes the attack by around 150 fans linked to La Mancha and says he saw four cars stopped. “When I saw it, I thought something was strange,” he said about the minutes before the bus he was driving was attacked and set on fire. “I was desperate because I couldn’t see anymore, because the fire took a huge proportion [grande] like that in seconds”, he added.
De Paula says he was not attacked with an iron bar because they identified him as the driver.
“The fans came at me with an iron bar to hit me. I opened it, showed my uniform, they told me to pull over. They said: we don’t want to hit the driver”, he recalled.
to ambush
The attack on two buses containing Blue Mafia fans left one dead and around 20 injured. The victim, motorcycle courier José Victor Miranda, 30, was beaten and suffered burns to his body, according to the PRF (Federal Highway Police).
A week later, only one suspect involved in the case was arrested — six others are on the run. He was located in a residence in Freguesia do Ó, in the north of São Paulo. An iron bar was also seized at the scene.
The SSP (Secretariat of Public Security) stated that the suspect arrested on Friday was charged with the crimes of homicide, bodily harm, damage, riot and criminal association. He was taken to the 8th Police District prison, where he remains detained at the disposal of the Court.
“The investigations are continuing, under secrecy, by the 6th Deatur/Drade (Police Station for the Suppression of Offenses of Sports Intolerance), which is carrying out efforts to locate the others involved and execute the respective arrest warrants”, he stated.
Among the six members of the organization who have arrest warrants issued and are considered fugitives are president Jorge Luis Sampaio, 43, and vice-president, Felipe Mattos dos Santos, 31.
