Jeronimo Martins denies aggression by a security guard at Pingo Doche in Cedofeita in Porto

Jeronimo Martins assured this Friday that “no aggression was committed” at Pingo Doche in Cedofeita, Porto, where Tuesday’s theft led to the arrest of two people and filing a complaint with others.

In response to the Lusa agency, the Jeronimo Martins group, which runs the Pingo Doce supermarket chain, denied that the security guard of the Cedofeita store in Porto municipality had committed any aggression and indicated that the authorities took care of the entry.

“We inform you after investigation that the guard on duty in this Pingo Doche did not commit aggression towards the gentleman who was caught stealing personal care products from the store, a fact recorded by the store’s video surveillance system. The authorities were immediately called to the local residents to deal with the incident,” reads the reply sent to Luce.

This is an alleged theft that took place on Tuesday at 17:00 in Pingo Doche, located in the parish of Sedofeit.

The PSP Metropolitan Office in Porto told Luz on Thursday that a 41-year-old man living in Porto was arrested, “accused of having crossed the ticket office without paying for 40 euros worth of beauty products.” you will be hidden in a backpack.

“Manager [do supermercado] and the guard handed over the man under arrest. Several citizens tried to prevent the man from being detained,” a PSP source said.

In addition to the arrest of a suspected theft, a 28-year-old woman living in Vila Nova de Gaia was arrested for “resisting and coercing a representative of authority.”

Following the event, another 31-year-old woman living in Porto filed a complaint against a PSP agent for “breach of physical integrity” at the Sedofeita police station, she told Luce, adding that “they refused to disclose the identity of the abusive police officer.”

The complaint filed against the PSP agent was also confirmed by Porto’s PSP, who reported that the woman was attended to by an ambulance at the scene.

The PSP Metropolitan Office in Porto has already approached the network’s commercial establishment, Jeronimo Martins, with a request to preserve the surveillance images.

Posts circulating on social media are from people who claim to have witnessed the aggression of a “guard against a homeless person” trying to steal “shampoo and a bag of frozen peas” from the supermarket, and subsequently the intervention of the police. station with “10/12 officers” inside the shop and “huge police cars and 15 officers” outside.

The reports, which received dozens of reposts and comments, reported on “attacks and blows with a truncheon” on people who tried to prevent the police and security forces from allegedly using violence against a man.

“Many people intervened, including the Pingo Doce staff, because they saw that the situation was not escalating in the way that was intended. The store manager even agreed that we would pay what he [sem-abrigo] he carried it out, but the guard took two carts and held him back. Then, just like that, 10 policemen in bulletproof vests entered the store. I, in order to protect a third person – a girl who was pressed against the wall to be handcuffed – touched the hand of one of them, and he hit me with a baton on the back of the knee and on the buttocks, ”said Ines. Rodriguez, who then filed a complaint with PSP.

He told Luce that after filing a complaint, he went to the hospital dos Luciadas.

The hospital report says: “Victim of baton attack [que] results [em] hematomas on the buttocks and the lower third of the back of the thigh and abrasions on the anterior surface of the left wrist.

Ines Rodriguez also indicated that she applied to the Institute of Forensic Medicine on Wednesday, but the report was sent directly to the Ministry of Public Administration.

On Thursday, Ines Rodriguez turned to the prosecutor’s office, where she was told that she would soon be called to testify.

The Lusa agency has requested information from the Ministry of Health and is awaiting a response.