Dani Morera Tretin
CAMBUKIRA, Brazil (Reuters) – It was Lovers' Day in Brazil on June 12. Leo Nunes, 24, had been talking for a few days to a man he met on Hornet, a popular gay dating app, before arranging to meet for the first time in Sao Paulo's middle-class Sacoma district.
Security cameras showed two men on a motorbike appearing in the alleyway where he was waiting, taking his mobile phone and shooting him dead.
The Nunes family, who gave details of the investigation to Reuters, said one suspect had been arrested. Sao Paulo police said they were investigating the shooting as a robbery-murder case but did not provide further information or confirm whether any arrests had been made.
According to reports, Nunes is one of at least five gay men who have been killed in Brazil since March 2024 after arranging meet-ups on dating apps. Dozens more victims have said on social media that they were lured by fake profiles on gay dating apps and then subjected to armed robbery.
Police have also warned about “romance scams” luring straight men into kidnapping, but have not given figures.
The killings and assaults have rattled Brazil's large and vibrant gay community, which remains often wary of law enforcement — a fear that makes it a target for criminals, according to three people who said they were attacked and LGBT advocates.
“Because of structural homophobia, criminals know that LGBT people are vulnerable. They know they are easily blackmailed,” said Wandery Montanoli, lawyer for the family of Heleno Bege Dumba, a gay doctor found dead in Sao Paulo in April with a gunshot wound to the head. Montanoli said Dumba was lured into an ambush through a dating app and killed in a robbery attempt.
Sao Paulo police said they had arrested three suspects in connection with Dumba's death and that they remain in police custody awaiting trial. Police did not provide further details.
Montanoli said the crime continued a pattern of criminals targeting gay men through dating apps and then spending days luring them with fake profiles on various 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 solved four cases related to “romance fraud” in general.
Gabriel, a gay man who asked not to give his last name for privacy reasons, said he arranged a date on the same street in Sacoma where Nunez was shot and killed in late March. He later learned he'd been lured by the same dating profile as several of the other victims.
“A man held a gun to my stomach and asked for my phone password,” Gabriel said. The attackers accessed his bank accounts, stole his savings and maxed out his credit cards. A group of women who comforted him after the attack said they had witnessed a nearly identical scene the night before.
In police reports and group chats seen by Reuters, the man detailed the assault and said six other men had experienced similar acts of violence and had reported them to police. Police declined to comment on their cases.
Gabriel said he and others had reported incidents of the same fake profiles to Hornet, which remained online for weeks after the reports were made, but that Reuters could not independently verify them.
“The investigation could have been done before Leo's incident. It didn't need to get to this point,” Gabriel said.
“All reports are reviewed and considered by Hornet,” said Hornet operations manager Jerry Monahan.
He said that after Nunes' murder in June, the company added people to a team working around the clock to respond to user reports and changed its global reporting system to prioritize more serious issues, but did not provide details.
A spokesman for Grindr, another gay dating app, said the company was “aware that in Brazil, digital platforms like ours can be exploited to target LGBTQ+ people.”
He added that the app includes security advice and features and that the company works closely with law enforcement.
Fear and Shame
Like many young LGBT Brazilians, Nunes left his hometown, a small town called Cambuquirá, for the bigger, more liberal city of São Paulo, four hours away.
His mother, Adriana Rodriguez, said her son wanted to become a psychotherapist to help people suffering from homelessness and addiction, and that she found solace in the “LGBT families” who embraced him in the city.
While Sao Paulo boasts a vibrant gay scene and the world's largest Pride parade, Nunes' friends said they discussed frequent clashes with homophobia and transphobia.
“We all have a story,” said one of her friends, Vinicius Reis, who recalled Nunez's concern for vulnerable members of the LGBT community, including those who had been forced to leave their homes.
Nunez came out with the support of Kambukila's parents, who called his death a hate crime.
“Criminals know their victims won't go to the police,” her father, Aurelio Nunez, said in an emotional interview, holding his wife's hand. “Sometimes they don't even tell their family because they're ashamed.”
The Brazilian Forum for Public Safety, a private organization that tracks public safety issues, recorded 214 homophobic and transphobic motivated murders last year, a 42% increase from 2022, and warned that such crimes are likely underreported.
Brazil's Supreme Court made homophobia a crime in 2019, but police and judges often avoid the classification in favor of broader categories such as assault or theft, three lawyers said in interviews.
Vanessa Vieira, a public defender who serves the LGBT community in Sao Paulo state, said she has witnessed “enormous resistance from judges and police officers to classifying crimes as homophobic.”
This skepticism may contribute to LGBT victims being hesitant to report crimes, Vieira added.
“There's a lot of horror to report about how it's disrupting their lives,” she said.
(Reporting by Dani Morera Tretin; Editing by Stephanie Eschenbacher, Brad Haynes and Rosalba O'Brien)