Coronavirus: Video Of An Arrest In Brazil Falsely Linked To Lockdown In Italy

A video of police apprehending a man threatening people with a gun in Brazil's Sao Paolo area, is viral with claims that it is from Italy, where the police is coming down heavily on people who are venturing out during the lockdown. 

The 27-long footage, shot from atop a building, shows a policeman aiming a gun at a miscreant after apprehending him. Moments later, a team of policemen arrive and surrounds him, as one pins him down. He is then handcuffed and taken into custody. 

The video is viral on multiple social messaging apps, including TikTok and lauds Italy for being stringent with its lockdown laws. It further amplifies how India should practice stringent laws in the lockdown period

It has been captioned as, "When Italy says lock down, they mean it. This must be implemented in India today." The video has been viewed more than 2.87 lakh times at the time of writing this article.

Veteran actor Rishi Kapoor also tweeted the video with a similar narrative. 

Italy has been declared the new epicenter of COVID-19, with as many as 5476 deaths so far. 59,138 have been infected with the virus so far. The staggering numbers are the most for a single country till now. The country has been locked down for over 12 days post the outbreak. Multiple states in India have announced a complete lockdown from March 23 in wake of the outbreak in the country.

Fact Check 

BOOM broke the video into its key-frames and ran a reverse image search. We were directed to a longer video, that was shared by a senior police officer of Brazil, Tenente Santini. The video shows the miscreant brandishing a knife in front of two women, moments before a policeman takes charge of the situation. 

Upon relevant keyword searches, we came across the screenshots of the same footage in a news article, which reported about a suspect who was nabbed for threatening people with a knife in the North zone of Brazil's Sao Paulo area. 

The suspect, who was intoxicated, lifted his shirt to show that he was unarmed. According to the reports, he was then knocked over and handcuffed. Globo, a news organisation in BRazil, reported, Military Police will analyze images to see if there was any aggression.

The incident happened on March 19. in Caninde, North Sao Paulo. 

An excerpt from Globo , when translated in English, reads, "A video recorded by a cell phone shows a military policeman tripping a suspect from behind threatening people with a knife, on Thursday morning (19), in the North Zone of São Paulo. The Military Police (PM) will analyze the footage to determine if there was an excess in the action. In the images, the man, who appears to be intoxicated, is arguing with another military police officer at around 8 am on Rua Itariri, in Canindé. When he approaches, the PM points the gun in his direction. Then the suspect raises his shirt to show that he is unarmed. A vehicle approaches and two PMs leave it. One of them goes towards the man, who turns his back and walks. Then the policeman kicks his legs. The suspect falls flat on his face, is handcuffed and arrested. At least four police officers, 11 PM vehicles and two corporation motorcycles participate in the incident. The man was taken to a hospital, where he was medicated. A police report was registered by the PM at a police station and the suspect was subsequently released."

The same was reported in Estadao, another news organisation of Brazil. The country on Thursday announced closing land borders and prohibiting entry to people from European countries to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus. So far, 25 people have died in Brazil and as many as 1620 infected.