FILE PHOTO: Gabriel, a victim of a robbery after arranging a date using a gay dating app, speaks during an interview with Reuters, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, June 28, 2024. REUTERS/Carla Carniel/File Photo
CAMBUQUIRA, Brazil (Reuters) - It was June 12, Lover's Day in Brazil. Leo Nunes, 24, had spent a few days talking to someone he met on Hornet, a popular gay dating app, before arranging their first encounter in Sao Paulo's middle-class Sacoma neighborhood.
A security camera captured the moment that two men on a motorcycle showed up in the alley where he was waiting, grabbed his phone and shot him dead.
The Nunes family, who shared details of the investigation with Reuters, said one suspect had been arrested. Sao Paulo police said they are investigating the shooting as a robbery resulting in a homicide, but did not provide further information or confirm if there had been an arrest.
Nunes was one of at least five gay men killed since March 2024 after planning encounters through dating apps in Brazil, according to news reports. Dozens more victims have described on social media suffering armed robberies after being lured by fake profiles on gay dating apps.
Police have also warned of "love cons" involving straight men lured into kidnappings, without providing figures.
The string of murders and assaults has shaken the gay community in Brazil, which is large and vibrant but still often wary of law enforcement. This reluctance makes it a target for criminals, according to three people who said they had been attacked, as well as LGBT advocates.
"Because of structural homophobia, criminals know that LGBT people are vulnerable. They know they will be more easily intimidated," said Wanderley Montanholi, a lawyer for the family of Heleno Veggi Dumba, a gay doctor who was found dead in April in Sao Paulo after being shot in the head. Montanholi said Dumba was killed by criminals in an attempted robbery after they had lured him into an ambush through a dating app.
Sao Paulo police said they had arrested three suspects in Dumba's death who remain in police custody awaiting trial. They declined to give more details.
Montanholi said the crimes repeated a pattern in which criminals target gay men through dating apps and groom them for days with fake profiles across different social media platforms.
Police declined to comment on whether they had identified a broader pattern of murders and robberies linked to gay dating apps, saying only that investigators in Sao Paulo had cleared four cases involving "love cons" in general.
Gabriel, a gay man who declined to give his surname, citing privacy, said in late March he had arranged a date on the same street in Sacoma where Nunes was shot dead. He was lured by the same dating profile as several other victims, he later learned.
"One man put a gun to my stomach and asked me the password of my phone," he said. With that, the criminals accessed his bank accounts, stole his savings and maxed out his credit card. Gabriel said a group of women who offered him comfort afterwards had witnessed a nearly identical episode the night before.
He detailed the assault in a police report and in a group chat, both seen by Reuters, with six other men who said they had reported to law enforcement experiencing the same violent con. Police declined to comment on their cases.
Gabriel said he and others had also flagged their incidents involving the same false profile to Hornet. He said the fake profile stayed online for weeks after he made his report, which Reuters could not independently verify.
"An investigation could have happened before Leo's case. It didn't have to get here," Gabriel said.
Gerry Monaghan, head of operations at Hornet, said that "all reports are looked at and reviewed by Hornet."
After the killing of Nunes in June, he said the company had added staff to a team that works around the clock responding to user reports and changed its global reporting system to prioritize more serious issues, without elaborating.
A spokesman for Grindr, another gay dating app, said the company is "aware that in Brazil, digital platforms such as ours are occasionally abused to target LGBTQ+ people."
He added that the app includes security advice and features, and the company collaborates closely with law enforcement.
FEAR AND SHAME
Like many young LGBT Brazilians, Nunes had left his small hometown, Cambuquira, for the more liberal metropolis of Sao Paulo four hours away.
He planned to become a psychotherapist and help people struggling with homelessness and addiction, his mother Adriana Rodrigues recalled. She took comfort in the "LGBT family" that embraced him in the big city.
Although Sao Paulo boasts a lively gay scene and the world's largest Pride parade, friends of Nunes said they discussed their frequent run-ins with homophobia and transphobia.
"We all had our story," said one friend, Vinicius Reis, who recalled Nunes looking out for vulnerable members of their LGBT community, including some forced to leave their family homes.
Nunes came out with the support of his parents in Cambuquira, who called his death a hate crime.
"Criminals know their victims won't go to police," his father Aurelio Nunes said, holding his wife's hand in an emotional interview. "Sometimes, they do not even tell their family because of shame."
The Brazilian Forum on Public Security, a civil society group tracking public safety issues, recorded 214 murders motivated by homophobia and transphobia last year, up 42% from 2022, while flagging that such crimes are likely underreported.
Brazil's Supreme Court codified homophobia as a crime in 2019, but three lawyers said in interviews that police and judges often avoid using the label, preferring broader categories such as assault or theft.
Vanessa Vieira, a public defender serving the LGBT community in Sao Paulo state, said she has seen "great resistance to categorize crimes as homophobia from judges and police officers."
That skepticism has contributed to LGBT victims' reluctance to come forward about crimes, Vieira added.
"There is a lot of fear to report, for how it might hinder their lives," she said.
(Reporting by Dani Morera Trettin; Editing by Stefanie Eschenbacher, Brad Haynes and Rosalba O'Brien)
