A BJJ competitor was shot and killed at a tournament in Manaus, Brazil on May 27th, 2023. The tournament in question was the FAJJE (Amazonian Federation of Jiu-Jitsu) North and Northeast Championship that was being hosted at the Amadeu Teixeira Sports Arena. victim has since been named as Matheus Rogério Machado de Castro, a 25 year-old BJJ competitor who was shot in the Arena itself. Although emergency services reached him in time, he did not survive the injuries that he suffered.
There’s no news from local police as to the identity of the suspect but the news was originally reported by Brazilian news outlet Tatame, who have identified a potential explanation for the shooting. The victim was actually accused of the murder of Fernanda Caroline Chaves Pinho, a woman who was known as ‘the Barbie of trafficking’. That shooting happened back in September 26th, 2019 and according to the Civil Police of Amazonas at the time, the motive behind it was a territorial dispute over drug trafficking in Manaus Center. Pinho was heavily involved in the world of drug trafficking and had decided to change from one criminal faction to another.
Because that murder came about as the result of a dispute between local gangs, it’s entirely possible that this shooting is another extension of that same dispute. When police arrived, the entire tournament was suspended of course and apparently the security at the event was entirely the responsibility of FAJJE. These kinds of back-and-forth wars between gangs are relatively common throughout several areas in Brazil, as of course is the practice of Jiu-Jitsu. Still, this is the first time that a major shooting like this has happened at a BJJ tournament in Brazil, and resulted in a competitor being killed. The events might seem concerning to outsiders, but the reality is that this is likely an isolated incident and isn’t something that people will see repeated any time soon.
