In the Maranhao region of Brazil, a referee for an amateur soccer league was brutally attacked and decapitated by an angry mob after he stabbed and killed a soccer player last Sunday.
The referee, Otavio Jordao da Silva, was only 20 years old and was an amateur referee. The player, 30-year-old Josenir dos Santos Abreu, would not exit the field when da Silva told him too. This resulted in a fistfight, which escalated into da Silva stabbing Abreu, who died on his way to the hospital.
Fans and friends of Abreu charged down to the field and formed a mob to attack da Silva. According to USA Today, the crowd viciously beat him, stoned him, removed his limbs, and then decapitated his head, displaying it on a stick in the middle of the field for victory.
The Christian Post reports that Valter Costa, the police chief of Santa Ines in Maranhao, strongly disagrees with what happened.
"Reports of witnesses have indicated some people that were in place at the time of the fact. We will identify and hold accountable all those involved,” Costa said. “A crime will never justify another. Actions like this do not collaborate with the legality of a state law."
The only arrest made so far has been 27-year-old Luis Moraes Souza, but police are searching for two more suspects.