Feminicide attempt: man stabs ex-partner in AM; watch video

Adrisa De Góes – Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS (AM) – The domestic Raphaella da Silva Bessa, 30, received two knife stabs in the abdomen by former partner, identified as Francisco Josiano da Silva Melo Bessa, 35, in the early hours of this Sunday, 4, when leaving the Bar and Choperia “Hora Extra” in the neighborhood Petropolis, South-Central Zone of Manaus. The suspect also injured the victim’s current boyfriend, who was also present.

The attempted feminicide happened around 5am, on Coronel Conrado Street, behind the General Command of the Amazonas Military Police (PMAM). Images from a security camera recorded the moment Raphaella and her boyfriend pass by on a motorcycle and then the perpetrator tries to run them over. However, before doing so, he hits a parked car and almost rolls over.

The couple pulls the motorcycle over and the aggressor gets off the car, apparently upset, and advances against his ex-companion with a knife. The man hit Raphaella at least twice in the abdominal region. In the recording, it is possible to hear the woman screaming and asking Josiano, as he is better known, to stop the attacks. The author of the attempted feminicide is on the run.

To CENARIUM MAGAZINE, the victim’s brother, Robert Junior Bessa, said that Raphaella is hospitalized at the Hospital and Emergency Room 28 de Agosto, where she underwent surgery and is in stable health. Her current boyfriend, wounded in the attempted feminicide, has already been discharged and is at home.

Troubled relationship

Robert reported that his sister and the man had been separated for two months. He says that she put an end to the relationship after suffering a series of physical and psychological aggressions. On one of the last occasions, Josiano tried to break into Raphaella’s family home to assault her.

After this episode, the victim filed a domestic violence complaint with the Military Police (PM) and had a protective measure granted by the courts. However, this was not enough to put an end to the situation. “It was a troubled relationship, full of violence. Now this man has made an attempt on her life”, said Raphaella’s brother.

Bloody reality

For Amanda Pinheiro, president of the As Manas Institute and a lawyer active in assisting women victims of violence, the confrontation of this type of crime is a universal agenda that cannot be used as partisan or for eligibility in elections every four years.

“Unfortunately, this is the bloody reality faced by women in our society in Manaus and in Brazil as a whole. The agenda of confronting violence against women must be taken seriously by the state and by the whole society, because every day we lose lives and leave children orphaned by feminicide”, she stressed to CENARIUM MAGAZINE.