“I didn’t remember to use pepper spray,” says police. Odair’s widow lives with 400 euros and 2 children

Rui Machado, 22 years old, believes that pepper gas would not have helped to stop Odair and that there was a risk of the agents themselves being hit by the gas. Police accused of false testimony did not mention knife in court.

The second police officer on the patrol who tried to detain Odair Moniz said this Wednesday in trial that he did not use pepper gas before his colleague fatally shot the Cape Verdean because he forgot.

“I didn’t remember to remove the pepper spray”stated, as a witness, at the Central Criminal Court of Sintra, Rui Machado, noting that he currently considers that such wouldn’t have helped to put an end to the resistance of Odair Moniz, 43 years old, to being handcuffed.

Shortly before, Bruno Pinto, who killed Odair, said that his baton would not have helped either: he did not use it, because “” given the resistance offered by Odair at that moment.

At issue is the fact, explained Rui Machado, 22 years old, that the resident in Bairro da Zambujal was then behaving aggressively and that there was a group of people heading towards the patrol. The police officer also argued that there was a risk of the officers themselves being hit by pepper gas.

The young police officer essentially corroborated the version of events told during the morning by the author of the deadly shots and the only defendant in the case, Bruno Pinto, but assured that Didn’t watch the first shotwhich hit Odair Moniz in the chest.

“I turn my back to the two [para apanhar o meu rádio do chão] and I hear a gunshot behind me. I didn’t know who had been hit”, he reported, adding that when he turned around again, he saw the Cape Verdean citizen “in an attack position”, without mentioning the existence of any knife.as was alleged by Bruno Pinto to justify the deadly shootings.

Rui Machado is accused in another case for false testimony about a sharp weapon that was later found at the scene of the crime.

Odair was “the pillar of the house”

In the afternoon, Odair Moniz’s widow assured that her husband was “the pillar of the house”, including financially, and that he currently has a monthly income of around 400 euros for himself and his two children, aged 21 and four.

In a statement in the defendant’s absence, Ana Patrícia Moniz, 37 years old and a kitchen assistant, stated that since her husband’s death she has been on sick leave due to depression, and that her eldest son, previously talkative and in a good mood, is even at home “it’s hard to smile”and that the youngest turns off the television whenever he sees news about his father and asks “why, why, why”.

Regarding the night Odair Moniz was killed, the woman said that her husband left the house at 8:30 pm on October 20, 2024 saying he was coming back and never returned, unable to find an explanation why, at 5:25 am the following day, he was in the vicinity of Cova da Moura, where he would end up being shot by the PSP agent after a chase resulting from a road traffic violation.

The next trial session is scheduled for October 29, at the Central Criminal Court of Sintra.