Two bus passengers watch a policeman during a protest in Rio de Janeiro. /
Authorities are investigating whether the 16-year-old attacker belongs to a Nazi group
At least three people have died this Friday and another eleven have been injured after a shooting attack in two schools in Brazil. The shooter was a former student of one of the educational centers, who receives psychiatric care and was wearing a swastika on his clothing at the time of the attack.
The 16-year-old assailant was not identified by the authorities and confessed to the crime when he was arrested by the Police, but at the moment he has not explained the reason for the attack, according to what the authorities said at a press conference. The attack occurred in the city of Aracruz, in the state of Espírito Santo, with a balance of three deaths, two teachers and a child, and eleven injured, four of them in serious condition.
The young man was a student at the Primo Bitti school, one of the educational centers attacked, until last June, the month in which he changed schools, for reasons unknown to the authorities. To commit the crime, he used a semi-automatic pistol owned by his father, a police officer, and a police revolver.
In his account, the attacker said that he planned the crime for two years and fired at will, “without a defined target,” according to the regional Public Security Secretary, Márcio Celante. The governor of Espiritu Santo, Renato Casagrande, said at the same press conference that the young man has a “mental health problem” for which he receives psychiatric care.
He also revealed that he had a swastika on the camouflage clothing he was wearing at the time of the attack. The authorities are investigating whether she belongs to any Nazi group. “This shows how the culture of violence is present in some people, and unfortunately in some young people,” Casagrande said.
The young man went to school in his father’s car, entered the Primo Bitti school breaking the padlock on the back door, went to the teachers’ room and opened fire on the teachers, who were on a break between classes. He then went to the Praia do Coqueiral Educational Center, a private school on the same avenue, and shot several children, after which he fled, but was arrested hours later at a family home.