Moise Kabagambe was seen in a video from the Tropikalia beach kiosk’s security cameras being attacked by a group of men who beat him repeatedly with a club and a baseball bat, according to police, who have opened an investigation into his death.
Three men have been arrested in connecting to the murder, according to police.
Lay said that he was beaten to death on January 24 after demanding back pay for two days from work at the kiosk, where he had served drinks.
Rio de Janeiro’s Secretary of Public Security Brenno Carnevale described the murder as “cowardly,” in a tweet and that he sympathized with the family’s pain.
Carnevale added that he has ordered the “immediate ban on the operation of the establishment that is related to the dynamics of the crime.”
He added that he hopes that “such and unacceptable brutality will be investigated by the police authorities and culminate in the criminals being held accountable.”
Lay, Kabagambe’s mother, is pleading for justice.
“They (the murderers) broke my son’s back, they broke his neck. I fled Congo so we wouldn´t get killed. However, they killed my son here as they kill in my country. They killed my son with punches, kicks. They killed him like a beast,” Lay told Brazilian Newspaper Extra.
Kabagambe is the fifth person from the DRC to be murdered in Brazil since 2019, the DRC’s embassy in Brasilia told CNN. Three of those killings took place in Rio, one in São Paulo and one in Brasilia, it said.
