Target of a shooting attack last Saturday (27), lieutenant Ronickson Pimentel dos Santos is investigated in two investigations into deaths in police interventions in the Route (Rondas Ostensivas Tobias de Aguiar), elite troop of the Military Police of São Paulo of which he was a member.
There is no information, so far, that connects these investigated cases with the attack suffered last weekend.
The most recent case is from January this year, in an incident that began with a seizure of weapons and drugs in Itaquaquecetuba and ended with a suspect dead in Suzano, in the metropolitan region of São Paulo.
He and three other police officers said that, after the arrest, they were taken by a suspect to a house in Suzano where another man was involved in the drug trafficking scheme. They said that they were shot at when they arrived at the scene and that they retaliated, causing the death of João Francisco Silva de Souza, 28.
Both Pimentel and another police officer, Corporal Edson Valério, said they shot Souza in self-defense. In two properties in Itaquaquecetuba, two weapons, ammunition, three bulletproof vests, marijuana and cocaine were seized, according to the police report.
At the address in Suzano, a 9mm caliber pistol and 166 bricks of marijuana were seized, also according to the incident record. A 22-year-old woman was in the house with Souza, in Suzano, and stated in her statement that she only heard the shots, but did not see the dynamics of the incident.
Assault in Santo André
Pimentel was also involved in another death due to police intervention a year ago in Santo André in the ABC region. In this case, according to the record, he was in a Rota car with three other police officers when the team was warned by a motorcyclist that there was a robbery in progress nearby.
Three robbers, on two motorcycles, approached a couple who were waiting for a garage door to open to enter their home. They demanded the victims’ belongings and ordered the two to get out of the car they were in.
At that moment, a neighbor noticed the robbers moving as her mother walked towards the street and shouted at her not to leave. In response, the robbers shot toward the neighbor’s window, according to the report of two witnesses at the police station.
The police say they saw the shots fired towards their neighbor and started shooting towards the trio of robbers. The investigation, which began in July 2025, remains open.
The suspect Weslley da Silva Facundo, 25, was shot in the head and another in the right arm. The autopsy report indicates that he was injured in the back.
Pimentel said, in testimony, that he estimated he had fired nine times with his 5.56 caliber rifle. He added that all the officers on the team fired their weapons and that they could not be sure who hit Facundo.
Another suspect was arrested at the scene, and the third was detained at the police station. The police recognized him and stated that he was trying to falsely report the theft of his motorcycle.
Since 2020, the lieutenant has been investigated in at least nine cases of death in police actions, according to records from the common and military courts in São Paulo. Seven of these cases were closed without filing a complaint, after the Public Prosecutor’s Office understood that there was no proof of a crime committed by him and other PMs.
The report found no cases on suspicion of murder prior to 2020. Pimentel has been a military police officer since 2009 and joined Rota, battalion that kills the most in the PM paulista, in 2019.
The case
Ronickson Pimentel dos Santos, 1st lieutenant of the PM, was shot in the head this Saturday morning (27). He was on Avenida Goiás, in São Caetano do Sul, in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, when he was shot at.
The police officer was in civilian clothes, on a motorcycle, stopped at a traffic light, when two men on another motorcycle approached and shot. He was hit in the head. Rescue teams provided first aid and he was transported by the Águia helicopter.
According to Rota, the lieutenant was taken to Hospital Mário Covas, in Santo Andréin which he underwent a surgical procedure to remove the projectile.
The São Paulo Court decreed this Sunday (28) the temporary prison of two men, aged 40 and 52, on suspicion of involvement in the attempted murder of the police officer. A third man, aged 24, was at the department accompanying his father, one of the detainees, but was not arrested.
Their identities were not disclosed and, as a result, the report was unable to identify those responsible for the defense. The arrest is temporary for 30 days and the men must undergo a custody hearing this Monday (29).
According to investigations, there is evidence that the suspects are linked to the men who chased and shot the military police officer.
Pimentel’s condition is considered extremely serious. At around 1 pm this Monday (29), the PM stated that a tomography carried out in the morning indicated an improvement in cerebral edema.
He is the brother of Eloá Cristina Pimentel15, was shot dead in 2008 after being held hostage by her boyfriend, Lindemberg Alves, 22, for more than a hundred hours in the apartment where she lived with her family, in Santo André, Greater São Paulo.
