By Dani Morera Trettin

CAMBUQUIRA, Brazil (Reuters) – It was June 12, Valentine’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 meeting in the middle-class Sacoma neighborhood of Sao Paulo.

A surveillance camera recorded the moment when two men on a motorcycle appeared in the alley where he was waiting, took his phone and shot him.

The Nunes family, which gave details of the investigation to Reuters, said a suspect had been arrested. Sao Paulo police said they were investigating the shooting as a robbery followed by murder, but gave no further information or confirmed whether there had been an arrest.

Nunes was one of at least five gay men killed since March 2024 after arranging meetings on dating apps in Brazil, according to news reports. Dozens of other victims have described on social media how they became victims of armed robberies after being lured by fake profiles on gay dating apps.

The police also warned of “love scams” ​​in which heterosexual men are lured into kidnappings, but did not provide any figures.

The series of killings and attacks has shaken Brazil’s gay community, which is large and vibrant but often distrustful of police. That reticence makes it a target for criminals, say three people who said they were attacked and LGBT activists.

“Because of structural homophobia, criminals know that LGBT people are vulnerable. They know they are easier to intimidate,” said Wanderley Montanholi, a lawyer for the family of Heleno Veggi Dumba, a gay doctor who was found dead in Sao Paulo in April after being shot in the head. Montanholi said Dumba was killed by criminals during an attempted robbery after ambushing him on a dating app.

Sao Paulo police said they had arrested three suspects in connection with Dumba’s death and were still in police custody awaiting trial, but declined to provide further details.

Montanholi said the crimes followed a pattern in which criminals target gay men through dating apps and manipulate them for days with fake profiles on various social media platforms.

Police declined to comment on whether they had identified a larger pattern of murders and robberies linked to gay dating apps, saying only that investigators in Sao Paulo had solved four cases involving “love scams” in general.

Gabriel, a gay man who declined to give his last name for privacy reasons, said in late March he had arranged a date on the same Sacoma street where Nunes was shot. He was lured by the same dating profile as several other victims, he later learned.

“A man put a gun to my stomach and asked me for the password to my phone,” he said. The criminals then gained access to his bank accounts, stole his savings and maxed out his credit card. Gabriel said a group of women who consoled him afterwards had witnessed an almost identical incident the night before.

He described the attack in a police report and in a group chat, both seen by Reuters, along with six other men who said they had reported the same violent attack to law enforcement. Police declined to comment on their cases.

Gabriel said he and others had also reported incidents involving the same fake profile to Hornet. He said the fake profile remained online for weeks after he reported it, something Reuters could not independently verify.

“An investigation could have taken place before Leo’s case. It didn’t have to come here,” Gabriel said.

Gerry Monaghan, Hornet’s operations manager, said that “all reports are reviewed and verified by Hornet.”

After Nunes’ killing in June, he said the company had bolstered a team working around the clock to respond to user reports and changed its global reporting system to prioritize more serious issues, but he did not elaborate.

A spokesperson for Grindr, another gay dating app, said the company was “aware that in Brazil, digital platforms like ours are occasionally misused to target LGBTQ+ people.”

He added that the app includes safety alerts and features and that the company works closely with law enforcement.

FEAR AND SHAME

Like many young Brazilian LGBT members, Nunes had left his small hometown of Cambuquira and now lived in the more liberal metropolis of São Paulo, four hours away.

He wanted to become a psychotherapist and help people struggling with homelessness and addiction, recalled his mother, Adriana Rodrigues. She found comfort in the “LGBT family” that welcomed him into the big city.

Although Sao Paulo has a vibrant gay scene and the largest Pride parade in the world, friends of Nunes said they have spoken about their frequent encounters with homophobia and transphobia.

“We all had our story,” said a friend, Vinicius Reis, who recalled how Nunes cared for vulnerable members of her LGBT community, including some who were forced to leave their family homes.

Nunes came out with the support of his parents in Cambuquira, who described his death as a hate crime.

“The perpetrators know that their victims will not go to the police,” said his father Aurelio Nunes, holding his wife’s hand in an emotional interview. “Sometimes they don’t even tell their family out of shame.”

The Brazilian Public Security Forum, a civil society group that deals with public security issues, recorded 214 murders motivated by homophobia and transphobia last year, 42% more than in 2022, but pointed out that such crimes are likely underreported.

Brazil’s Supreme Court recognized homophobia as a crime in 2019, but three lawyers said in interviews that police and judges often avoid using that term, preferring broader categories such as assault or theft.

Vanessa Vieira, a public defender representing the LGBT community in São Paulo state, said she has experienced “great resistance from judges and police to classify crimes as homophobia.”

This skepticism has contributed to LGBT victims being hesitant to openly disclose crimes, Vieira added.

“They are very afraid to report something because it could affect their lives,” she said.

(Reporting by Dani Morera Trettin; Editing by Stefanie Eschenbacher, Brad Haynes and Rosalba O’Brien)