Impunity is the norm amid Brazil’s epidemic of police killings

Last week, 24-year-old Kathlen Romeu was shot and killed in a Rio de Janeiro favela. City authorities say she was struck in the torso by a stray bullet during confrontations between the police and drug gangs. She was pregnant with her first child and died on her way to hospital. The police have denied any responsibility for the deaths of Ms. Romeu and her baby, and they have opened three separate investigations related to their murders. 

Ms. Romeu is just the latest victim of police violence targeting Brazil’s favela residents. According to public security data portal Fogo Cruzado, 15 pregnant women have been shot in Greater Rio de Janeiro since 2017 — eight of them died.

Children are also at the receiving end of the brutality. The Brazilian Public Security Forum estimates that 2,884 Brazilian children and teenagers were killed in police actions between 2017 and 2018. Between June 2020 and March 2021, a total of 800 people were killed by law enforcement agents in the state of...