Motoboy Dante Luiz Oliveira, 40, left his home in Caieiras, in Greater São Paulo, early on the morning of the 8th. Allianz Parque arena, in Pompeia, west of São Paulo – Alviverde won Egypt’s Al Ahly, in Abu Dhabi. But first, he stopped by a musical instrument store to buy a new cuíca.
Oliveira, shot dead last Saturday (12), after Palmeiras’ defeat by English Chelsea, in the final of the tournament, would make his debut in the drums of the Mancha Verde samba school this Carnival, which, because of the pandemic of the new coronavirus, has been moved to the month of April.
Following the association, Oliveira participated in a course at the drum school and was ready to debut.
“He bought the new cuíca for the parade and the old one would only be for rehearsal,” says jiu-jitsu fighter Vinícius Santana da Silva, 22, a friend of the motoboy. Also from Palmeiras, he lives in Laranjeiras, considered the most populous neighborhood in Caieiras and where the victim of the violence lived with three of his five children.
“Now I’m the one with the responsibility,” says Dante Gomes Oliveira Rosa, 20, Dantinho, the motorcycle courier’s eldest son, who works at a car catalytic converter factory and who says he was in charge of his father’s house, a neighbor her grandmother’s, where two brothers aged 18 and 12 also live. Two other younger girls, one of which is only two years old, live with their mother and stepmother, respectively.
“My father was a speechless guy, he always ran for us and never missed anything at home”, says the son.
Silva, Dantinho and Oliveira went together to watch the World Cup final on Rua Caraíbas, one of the corners in front of the Palmeiras arena, a stronghold of organized supporters of the club alviverde. As if imagining that a tragedy was to come, Dantinho says he felt sick, because of the crowd and the heat, and returned home at halftime. He did not witness his father being shot in the chest.
“I saw the unfortunate guy with the gun and Dante coming a little soft and bewildered”, says Silva, about the shooting. Prison guard José Ribeiro Apostolo Júnior, 42, who was armed and arrested in the act, is suspected of having fired the shot.
The eldest son of the motoboy learned of his father’s death at home, when a friend who was with him received the news by phone. “I went to the hospital [das Clínicas, no centro de São Paulo]but the street here was full of people.”
Oliveira was a kind of community leader. His last action, says his friend Silva, was to collect donations of clothes and food that the two took to victims of the rains at the end of January, which killed 18 people in neighboring Franco da Rocha.
He was also the founder of Sodabeb Futebol Clube 17 years ago, a team that competes in Várzea de Caieiras football and other regional tournaments in Greater São Paulo. The current president, Carlos Henrique Ferreira de Souza, 37, recognized the patron for the images of violence on television, during a cousin’s birthday party.
According to Souza, the association has already had shirts made in honor of the patron and a banner, which should be stretched when the city’s championship season begins to be played, probably in March.
“He was a reference here”, says Souza, remembering that the founder of the team was also Sodabeb’s drum master.
At the door of the motoboy’s wake in Caieiras, Sunday (13), members of the drums of the Várzea and Mancha Verde team ignored the mourning protocols and played the Palmeiras anthem.
It was mainly the passion for the alviverde club that moved the surroundings of the motoboy’s life. His son Dantinho remembers that he went to the old Palestra Itália stadium with him for the first time when he was just eight years old. After seeing Palmeiras thrash Mogi Mirim 5-1, in the debut of the 2010 Paulista Championship (a game that featured striker Diego Souza, author of two goals, as a highlight), he never stopped attending the stands. Four years later, like his father, he was part of the Mancha Verde uniformed crowd.
Oliveira was remembered by former midfielder Marcos Assunção, a free kick taker who became an idol in recent Palmeiras history. Born in Laranjeiras, the former player published a tribute on his social networks.
“I know how football moves people, but what always moved me was to see father and son hugging each other when the goal is scored, to see the couple kissing and celebrating, and to see people crying because their team won a title, this is the magic of football,” he wrote.
“A resident of Laranjeiras, where I grew up, when Dante arrived in the neighborhood I was one of his first friends. We were just 3 years apart, we played video games together, we rode in a rolling car, we played football and I had the pleasure of meeting his family. His father, Dirceu, was a very good friend of my father, and I was able to see Dante grow up close and have a family, but unfortunately, yesterday a son lost a father.”
Goalkeeper in the soccer games, at the end of last year Oliveira fulfilled his dream of being under the same beam as Weverton, archer for Palmeiras and the Brazilian team, in a friendly that involved fans at the Allianz Parque arena.
The motoboy, who had a photo of him when he was young at the Maracanã stadium on a social network, deactivated after his death, ended up a victim of clashes between football fans, even involving only one team. On Saturday afternoon, the surroundings of the arena in Pompeii had clashes between Palmeiras and the Military Police.
The deputy commander of the 4th Battalion of the PM, Major Fábio Teodoro, said Saturday that the fight between fans and the shooting started a riot in the place.
In addition to Oliveira, another fan was shot on Saturday afternoon around the Palmeiras arena. One man, according to police, was shot in the hand. In testimony, the witness stated that he and Dante ran along with other Palmeirenses after the alleged shooter when they heard screams of “catch a thief”.
In São José do Rio Preto (443 km from SP), a syndic ended up being arrested for being suspected of having punched a lawyer from Palmeiras during the game with Chelsea, in front of the building where they lived.
“He had a light, he was different, he was anxious”, says Silva, who says he met the motoboy at a martial arts academy where Oliveira was a muay thai teacher, and who became inseparable friends in the stands of Allianz Parque, in November 2016, when Palmeiras won the Brazilian Championship by beating Chapecoense.
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