“It’s distressing, no one imagines such brutality. It’s like a nightmare, but you can’t wake up.” Man does kindness to neighbor and is killed moments later in front of his wife and 3-month-old baby
Eduardo, Samantha and Gustavo
The São Paulo Civil Police are investigating the murder of Eduardo Paiva Batista, 39 years old. The man died at the door of his apartment last Tuesday (21) hours after helping a new resident of the condominium, in the neighborhood of Sé.
It all happened in front of his wife, his 23-year-old stepson, and the couple’s newborn baby daughter. The motive for the crime is a mystery to the police and witnesses.
Relatives say that, around 1:30 in the morning, a woman they hadn’t known until then appeared at the gate of the condominium screaming and asking for help because she didn’t have the keys – and there is no doorman at the guardhouse.
Even at dawn, Eduardo then decided to go down to help and opened the gate for the stranger. At 5 am, the family says they were awakened by people slamming the door. Eduardo’s wife, Samantha Firmino, 39, told police that she got up to see what was going on.
That’s when he came across a man and a woman, people he didn’t know either. They said that her family had ‘taken away’ (disrespected) their sister – the one she was screaming for help to open the gate.
“No one ‘took’ anyone away, we helped her. She asked to open the gate because she was afraid of being robbed in the street and she didn’t have a key”, recalls Samantha. However, even after trying to explain that they had only tried to help the woman, the pair continued with the same thought. “Then I got excited and said: ‘Guys, you should say thank you. We helped your sister,’” she adds.
In the midst of the discussion that began at the entrance to the apartment, the woman, identified by them as Angela Wilma Oliveira de Souza, pulled out a knife and stabbed Eduardo in the neck. Then the pair fled, running.
While calling the PM, to try to alleviate the situation, the woman covered her husband’s wound with a sheet with the baby in her lap. “He fell face down near the pantry in the apartment and stayed there […] I was on the phone asking for help and he, in agony, said: ‘I’m going to die’”.
“With a lot of pain I come to say. My stepfather Eduardo Paiva Batista was brutally murdered. It’s not fair to stab someone in the neck over an argument. By an argument between neighbors, people who live in the same building. No one expects such an attitude. These people took the life of a warrior who never gave up fighting for our family. And he still died defending my mother ”, wrote Eduardo’s stepson, Gustavo Carvalho Moya, on social networks.
“He gave me a sister and played the role of a father to me, he never missed anything, he could stop eating, resting, sleeping, but he didn’t leave anyone helpless. Now he’s gone and that gap he left in our history has no way to fill. For this reason I ask for justice. Share as much as you can for this killer’s face to be stamped across Brazil. An inconsequential person who ends up with a family, does not deserve to walk the streets free, ”she added.
The incident report tells that the military police, called to the incident, did not locate the three suspects in their apartment. The owner of the apartment they had just rented gave the police a copy of the identity card of the suspect who stabbed Eduardo with the knife. Forensics found blood marks in both apartments, which indicates that they still returned home before the escape.
Eduardo and his family are from São Vicente, a municipality on the coast of São Paulo. The electronics technician was veiled and buried in his hometown. They will not return to the address where they lived the moments of terror that Tuesday morning.
Photo of Angela Wilma Oliveira de Souza, identified as the author of the murder
Teenage crush
Eduardo and Samantha have known each other since they were young. The two grew up in the same town, but went their separate ways in early adulthood. Both had relationships with other people and even had children with them before the ‘reunion’, which took place in 2021.
“I broke up during the pandemic [de Covid-19] and I left São Paulo, where I was living, to return to São Vicente. We meet again. He had just broken up too, and then we started dating,” recalled Samantha.
The reunion, according to her, meant the fulfillment of one of Eduardo’s ‘old dreams’. “He told Me he’s been ‘into’ me since he was a teenager. He was fulfilled because he got everything he wanted: dating the girl he always wanted, getting married and making a family with her. Me and our daughter were everything to him,” she commented.
According to his wife, Eduardo was a happy person who cared for his family. “He was fun and loving, almost ‘gooey’ he was so affectionate,” Samantha joked. “He loved making these declarations of love to me.”
The woman also described her husband as a hardworking man who was loved by his friends. “He worked since he was 14 to be able to buy his own things. In addition, he always treated people very well and always wanted to see everyone happy. He was very playful”.
In addition to his three-month-old daughter, Eduardo also had great affection for his stepson, Gustavo Carvalho Firmino Moya, 23 years old. “He used to say: ‘I wish he was my son’. And for me it is. He always called to see how he was doing,” said Samantha.
Edward wanted to move
Eduardo had visited an apartment in São Paulo two days before he was murdered. The man wanted to move, as he thought the street was too noisy and unsafe, in addition to having a lot of pubs and “noias”. “On Sunday, we went to see an apartment, because he really wanted to get out of there. He said it was bad for him, it was bad for us, he said that street is horrible, dangerous”, says Samantha.
“It was a horrible environment, there was a lot of car noise and music. We didn’t like it. The street was dirty, there were a lot of ‘noia’. He wanted to get out of there as soon as possible”, adds the widow.
