Man is fired from his job as a school principal after killing woman with bottle outside Brazilian soccer game
- Jonathan Santos was fired Tuesday from his Rio de Janeiro elementary school principal position
- The 33-year-old was arrested Tuesday morning at him home for his role in the death of Gabriella Anelli outside a São Paulo soccer stadium
- A fight broke out in front of Allianz Parque on July 8 and Santos threw a bottle that broke and pierced a vein in Anelli’s neck – the 23-year-old died July 10
A suspect linked to the death of a female soccer fan in front of a stadium in Brazil has been fired from his role as elementary school principal.
Jonathan Santos, 33, was removed from the Rio de Janeiro school post hours after police arrested him at his home on Tuesday morning, three weeks after Gabriella Anelli, 23, died of a heart attack at a hospital in São Paulo.
Santos, a father of a two-year-old boy, was promoted as the school’s top administrator post in February 2022, according to Brazilian news outlet G1.
In a statement, the Rio de Janeiro Municipal Secretary of Education said that it disavowed ‘the crime and informs that the accused is arrested and removed from his duties.’
Santos traveled to São Paulo to support Flamengo in an away match at Palmeiras when fans from both sides brawled outside Allianz Parque prior to the start of the game the evening of July 8.
Gabriella Anelli (pictured) suffered a puncture to her jugular vein on her neck after she was struck by a shard of glass from a bottle that was allegedly thrown by former elementary school principal, Jonathan Santos, outside Allianz Parque on July 8, two days before she died at a hospital after suffering two heart attacks
Jonathan Santos (pictured) was arrested in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday and fired from his role as an elementary school principal. The 33-year-old traveled on July 8 from Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo to support his favorite soccer club, Flamengo, and got into a brawl outside the stadium with fans of the local side, Palmeiras. Santos allegedly threw a bottle that broke and punctured the neck of a Palmeiras supporter, 23-year-old Gabriella Anelli, who died two days later
He was caught on camera throwing a glass bottle towards a gate where Palmeiras fans were standing.
The bottle broke and a shard of glass punctured the jugular vein in Anelli’s neck.
Cellphones cameras showed Anelli, who suffered a three centimeter cut on the neck, sitting on the ground as a friend tended to her.
Anelli was rushed in an ambulance to Santa Casa Hospital, where she underwent surgery and died after suffering two heart attacks July 10.
Gabriella Anelli grew up being a fan of Brazilian soccer club Palmeiras and regularly attended the team’s games
Santos was extradited from Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo on Tuesday and his lawyer, Caroline Dias, told G1 that she still had been unable to talk to him.
‘Nobody sees themselves in a situation like that,’ Dias said. ‘It’s like a traffic accident that can victimize someone.’
São Paulo Civil Police chief César Saad said a press conference Tuesday that investigators were able to scan cameras that allowed them to identify their suspect.
Surveillance cameras showed Santos had changed from a gray t-shirt to a Flamengo shirt and then proceeded to enter the stadium.
‘We identify when he arrives, when he leaves, when he changes clothes, when he comes in to watch the game,’ Saad said.
Friends and family members recalled Anelli as a longtime Palmeiras fan who as a child attended games with her parents.
She continued to do so as an adult and once held a fundraiser for road match in Paraguay.
‘This was practically her fun. She took trips on weekends. It was the way she found herself,’ her father Ettore Marchiano told TV Globo. ‘She liked Palmeiras. That was her life. Palmeiras and the fans.’
