He could not say with certainty whether he fired the shot
A motoboy was killed by gunshot to the chest during clashes near Allianz Parque stadium; a penitentiary officer is detained as the suspected shooter. Police are investigating whether a second person was shot in the hand during the same confrontations between fans and military police on Saturday.
- Dante Luiz Oliveira, 40, killed by gunshot to chest near Allianz Parque stadium on Saturday, February 12
- José Ribeiro Apóstolo Júnior, 42, penitentiary officer arrested as suspect; claims he was attacked by Mancha Verde fan group
- Second victim shot in hand during same confrontations; ballistic testing planned to determine if same weapon used
- Celso Wanzo, 58-year-old lawyer, fatally beaten in São José do Rio Preto by building superintendent Emerson Ricardo Fiamengui, 44
Police investigate a second shooting incident during post-match violence following Palmeiras' World Cup final defeat, with one confirmed death and a penitentiary officer detained as the suspect.
Saturday afternoon in São Paulo turned violent when Palmeiras lost the Club World Cup final to Chelsea. Near the Allianz Parque stadium in the Pompeia district, confrontations erupted between fans and military police. By the time the dust settled, a motorcycle courier lay dead from a gunshot wound to the chest, and investigators were trying to piece together whether a second person had also been shot.
Dante Luiz Oliveira was forty years old. He was killed during the clashes that afternoon, struck by a single round. A penitentiary officer named José Ribeiro Apóstolo Júnior, forty-two, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of firing the fatal shot. But the case grew more complicated almost immediately. Police received word that another man had been hospitalized with a gunshot wound to his hand, apparently sustained during the same confrontations near the stadium.
César Saad, the civil police delegate overseeing sports-related violence cases, confirmed his department was investigating whether the two shootings were connected. Officers planned to visit the hospital where the second victim was being treated, hoping to take a statement and conduct ballistic testing on the bullet recovered from his hand. If the projectile matched the weapon used to kill Oliveira—a .380 pistol belonging to the penitentiary officer—it would suggest a single shooter was responsible for both incidents.
Apóstolo Júnior's account, delivered during a custody hearing on Sunday before Judge Renato Augusto Pereira Maia, painted a picture of chaos and self-defense. He claimed members of the Mancha Verde organized fan group attacked him, kicking him repeatedly, including in the head and face. When he fell, his shirt tore open, exposing his weapon. He said someone then stole his gun's magazine, along with his watch and phone. Desperate and outnumbered, he claimed he ran toward military police officers for help, but was caught and beaten again. During the struggle, he said, people tried to wrestle the gun from his hands. He could not say with certainty whether he fired the shot or whether it came from someone trying to disarm him. Only after the gunshot did he manage to reach the police officers and surrender his weapon.
His defense team, led by attorney Renan de Lima Claro, argued that their client was a licensed security agent with the legal right to carry a firearm. They pointed to the police report, which documented that officers at the scene observed a man surrounded and beaten with fists, bottles, and kicks, and heard a gunshot. The man then broke free and ran toward the police. The report also confirmed that the weapon had no magazine and no ammunition when recovered. Claro said his client was robbed and assaulted by other fans, exactly as he had claimed. The defense filed for habeas corpus, seeking to have Apóstolo Júnior released pending trial, though a judge ordered him held in preventive detention. On Monday, he was transferred to the Tremembé Penitentiary, about ninety miles from São Paulo.
The violence was not confined to the stadium district. In São José do Rio Preto, a city four hundred forty-three kilometers away, a fifty-eight-year-old lawyer named Celso Wanzo was fatally beaten. According to his wife, the architect Giani Senefonte, they were watching the World Cup final at home with friends when they heard shouting from the street. Wanzo went down to investigate, accompanied by a friend, only to be struck in the head by the building's superintendent, Emerson Ricardo Fiamengui, a forty-four-year-old financial manager. Wanzo collapsed unconscious and did not recover. Fiamengui turned himself in to police on Sunday night after a judge issued a warrant for his arrest. His defense did not respond to requests for comment.
Three people dead or wounded, two suspects in custody, and investigators still working to determine the full scope of what happened in those hours after the final whistle. The ballistic tests would tell part of the story. But the larger question—how a sporting defeat spiraled into multiple acts of violence across a state—remained open.
Notable Quotes
We will investigate to determine if the case has any connection to the penitentiary officer— Delegate César Saad
He is completely available to cooperate with the investigation— Defense attorney Renan de Lima Claro, regarding the suspect
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why would police think these two shootings might be connected?
The timing and location made it obvious to investigate. Both happened during the same confrontations near the stadium, within what sounds like a compressed window of chaos. If the same gun fired both shots, it changes the entire narrative of what happened that afternoon.
The penitentiary officer's story is that he was attacked and didn't know if he fired the gun. Does that hold up?
It's plausible enough that a judge didn't dismiss it outright. He was outnumbered, beaten, disarmed of his magazine. But the fact that he's a trained security professional who carries a weapon for a living—that's the tension. He should know better than most what happens when you run with a loaded gun in a crowd.
What strikes you about the lawyer's death in Rio Preto?
It's almost mundane compared to the shooting. A man hears shouting during the game, goes to confront his building's superintendent, and gets punched once. That's it. He dies from that single blow. It shows how thin the line is between an argument and a tragedy.
Do we know if the second shooting victim survived?
The source doesn't say. He was hospitalized with a hand wound, which is survivable, but we don't have confirmation of his condition or even his name. He's a ghost in this story so far—just a man with a bullet in his hand.
Why does the defense keep emphasizing that the gun had no magazine?
Because it suggests the officer couldn't have fired it intentionally. If someone stole the magazine, the gun shouldn't work. But then how did it fire? Either the magazine wasn't actually gone, or something else happened in that struggle. It's the detail that makes his story either credible or suspicious, depending on what the ballistics show.