Young man invades two schools in Brazil and kills at least three people

At least three people died and another eleven were injured this Friday when a 16-year-old former student, carrying Nazi symbols, opened fire in two schools in the southeast of Brazil where violent incidents in schools have increased in recent years, the assassin He was arrested.

The shootings took place in the municipality of Aracruz, in the state of Espírito Santo, some 600 kilometers northeast of Rio de Janeiro. Three teachers and a student whose age was not disclosed remain in serious condition.the authorities reported.

With his face covered and a swastika on his camouflage outfitthe young man broke into the Escola Primo Bitti, a public primary and secondary education center, from which he was transferred in June, according to investigators.

After breaching the back gate, he went to the staff room and opened fire on several of them who were gathered, killing two people and wounding nine others, authorities said.

A video from the security cameras published in the media shows the young man entering the school with a gun in his hand, while several people flee in his path. The images show him firing a few shots, without stopping his march.

Then, he went to the nearby Praia de Coqueiral Educational Center, a private center for pre-school through secondary education, where he murdered a teenager and left two more injured, before being arrested by the police.

“He did not have a defined target” when he opened fire, Civil Police Commissioner Joao Francisco Filho reported at a press conference, but he had been planning the attack for “two years”, as he confessed.

The two weapons he used in the attack belong to his father, a policeman, and one of them was his service weapon, the authorities said, who are investigating whether the young man, who was under “psychiatric treatment,” has ties to extremist groups.

He was found at his home hours later and, with the collaboration of his parents, he turned himself in without offering any resistance, they added. The governor of Espírito Santo, Renato Casagrande, decreed three days of official mourning.
The coastal municipality of Aracruz has about 100,000 inhabitants.

Brazil’s president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, called the episode an “absurd tragedy.”

“I learned with sadness about the attack on the schools in Aracruz, Espiritu Santo. My solidarity with the families of the victims of this absurd tragedy. And my support for the governor in the investigation,” tweeted the leftist, who will assume power on May 1. January.

Incidents of armed violence in schools in Brazil have increased in recent years, according to experts.

On March 13, 2019, two former students of a high school near Sao Paulo shot and killed eight people there, most of them students and employees, and then committed suicide.

On April 7, 2011, a 24-year-old former student opened fire in a Rio de Janeiro school, killing 12 people and wounding several others, before committing suicide.

According to Bruno Langeani, from the Sou da Paz research institute, andThese episodes in Brazil are generally led by men with a “radicalized discourse” in internet forums and “many times with hate speech against women”.

There have also been cases in which the aggressors were victims of harassment. For the expert, the greater availability of firearms also contributes to these attacks leaving more victims and be more lethal.

Access to firearms has been facilitated by decrees of far-right President Jair Bolsonaroin power since January 2019 and who had not demonstrated until Friday night.

According to the NGO Brazilian Public Security Forum, there are some 4.4 million weapons in private hands in this country of 215 million people.

“Gun policy needs to be reviewed,” Senator Wellington Dias tweeted, reacting to the attack.