The metalworker killed while helping build the stage for a Shakira concert has been named as a 28-year-old married dad of two.
Gabriel de Jesus Firmino died after a horror accident while assembling part of the set.
Shocking footage showed colleagues desperately trying to free him as he lay motionless on Sunday (26 Apr).
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Police say the tragedy unfolded as Gabriel was welding one of two lifts positioned side by side – separated by a gap of just 6cm, as reported by Need To Know.
He was working inside the structure, with the top half of his body in one lift and his legs in the other.
But when one of the lifts was raised, his legs were crushed.
Workmates managed to pull him free before firefighters arrived and he was rushed to hospital, but tragically could not be saved.
Gabriel, from Magé, leaves behind his 26-year-old wife and their two young children – a boy and a girl.
He had worked for more than three years at MG Coutinho Serviços Cenográficos – the firm hired to install four lifts for the massive 1,500-square-metre stage at Copacabana Beach.
Investigators are now working to establish exactly what went wrong and whether anyone is to blame.
Detective Ângelo Lages told local media: “We need to establish who gave the order for lift 1 to go up.
“The operator says it was him – the worker who died – who gave the instruction.
“We don’t yet know if it was entirely his fault.
“But under workplace safety regulations, this kind of equipment shouldn’t be operated with someone inside it, a forensic expert told me.
“So he should have finished the welding, stepped out, and only then had the lift operated, for safety reasons.
“He ended up trapped in that gap and even cried out for help.
“It was a very cruel death.”
The detective added: “The worker who activated the equipment was 25 metres away, when he should have been much closer.”
Event organiser BonusTrack said it is “providing full support and assistance to the company involved, its team and the victim’s family”.
It added: “Shakira got in touch with the organisers as soon as she learned what had happened and has remained in close contact with our team, closely following developments.
“She is deeply moved by what happened and is also focusing her energy on supporting the family.”
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