PSP agent receives suspended jail sentence for killing of unarmed chef in Cova da Moura

After months of court hearings, Sintra judges have ruled that Bruno Pinto, the young PSP agent who shot dead Cape Verdean chef Odair Moniz after the father of two ‘fled’ a police operation in the early hours of October, 2024, should not go to prison.

Facing the accusation of homicide, Pinto was sentenced to three years and six months in jail, suspended.

The court found “several elements of the prosecution’s case proven”, writes Expresso. But it also interpreted the confused situation as a scenario of “self-defence on the part of the officer, but with excessive use of force.”

It was perhaps the most ‘politic’ decision, from the judges’ point of view.

Noticiasaominuto, for example, writes that the court found the use of a gun, fired more than once, was “reprehensible (…) even without the experience that would have been desirable, the officer is expected to manage stress and anxiety in a different manner” – (different to killing unarmed civilians, in other words).

As to the whole issue of whether or not Moniz, 43, had been wielding a knife (which is what an initial PSP press statement affirmed), the court agreed that there was no knife (until one was effectively planted, or at least ‘appeared’, after Moniz had died).

But the case presented “very special circumstances”, judges decided. Moniz had been ‘very close’ to Pinto, “with threats of aggression”, when the young agent fired his service revolver – and thus their final decision.

Public Prosecutors had been asking for a condemnation for homicide, which they got (albeit with a suspended sentence), but they also asked for Pinto to be suspended from the PSP police force, which the court stressed is up to the force, which has a disciplinary process on the incident still open.

Pinto’s defence lawyer, Ricardo Serrano, had been asking for a verdict of “legitimate defence”, which in one way, he also got.

What today’s decision doesn’t do – or at least seemingly doesn’t do – is satisfy the people of Odair Moniz’s tight-knit community, Bairro de Zambujal, in Amadora.

Rádio Renascença talked to various residents of the ‘bairro’ ahead of this afternoon’s verdict, and they all stressed that it would be very hard for people to accept a suspended sentence.

To understand this fully, one has to appreciate a number of incidents in the past where police have been seen to unfairly target black people, particularly in Greater Lisbon areas. The BBC carried an exceptionally poignant piece many years ago. There have been multiple further examples since.

When Moniz was killed, black communities throughout the Greater Lisbon area went on the rampage. There was roughly a week of violence, unrest, torchings of cars and buses. There was even an attempted murder (of a bus driver).

These are memories that the residents of Bairro de Zambujal fear could come back to haunt them in the event of a suspended sentence, they told RR. One, named as Ana, told the station: “I really hope the policeman is condemned, very sincerely, because otherwise this could once again become an inferno”.

As RR summed up, the bottom line from people who agreed to talk to them, is that people who knew Moniz, and his extended family, want a decision that they see as ‘fair’. “We are all human beings (…) a suspended sentence would not be fair. A life was lost. There should be jail”, another resident affirmed.

Source material: SIC Notícias/ Expresso/ Executive Digest/ Rádio Renascença