Raid on ‘Superspreader Party’ Leads to a Man being Impaled by a Spear

On Saturday night, authorities received complaints about two ongoing farmhouse parties in the Tocantins capital city of Palmas—one attended by 300 people and another by at least 1,200, according to Brazilian newspaper Globo.

When police raided one of the parties, one male party-goer bolted toward the farmhouse’s steel gates, and—in an apparent effort to evade arrest—tried to climb over it. Instead, he ended up impaling himself after one of the gate’s top rods lodged right through his arm.

Photos of the man in question show him shirtless, dangling over the gate with the spear poking out of his arm. Firefighters who arrived on the scene worked together to saw the rod off of the gate, and the man was escorted to the hospital to have it surgically removed.

Clandestine mega-parties have been taking place all across Brazil, which is now one of the hardest-hit COVID-19 epicenters in the world.

Even as an aggressive new Brazilian variant ravages Latin America, an alarming number of babies in the country are dying after contracting the virus, and patients are tied down and ventilated without sedatives in jam-packed hospitals—local news outlets continue to report on massive superspreader events across the country on an almost daily basis.

Brazilian soccer star Gabriel Barbosa was detained last month after being caught at an illegal luxury casino event in Sao Paulo with 200 attendees. Weeks later, a 300-person pool party was shut down by police in Taquara, Jacarepaguá. On Sunday, police were called to two packed nightclubs where hundreds more had gathered in violation of pandemic measures.

The property owner and host of the Saturday event in Palmas were arrested and charged “for failure to comply with a decree on the prevention of COVID-19,” according to Globo.

Photos from the event show rows of dozens of young people sitting poolside on the ground, food and drink bottles scattered around, and police hovering over them. Some party-goers appear to be shielding their faces away from the shot of the camera. None are wearing masks.

Comments on the original Globo report first detailing the impalement incident offered some colorful insights on the public’s reaction to Brazil’s relentless superspreader parties and the people who attend them.

“Well done,” one commentator wrote in Portuguese.

“Register his social security number and cut all types of welfare for 5 years,” another reader suggested, referring to the man who was injured. “Punish him with 30 days of hospital cleaning services and cut 30 days of salary. The retained salary should be donated to a charity. I think it would solve things a bit.”

“They’re playing with their lives and the lives of their relatives,” a third person remarked. “So they should face the consequences.”