Brazilian police say the 16-year-old suspect who allegedly killed four people and injured 12 others in shootings at two schools in the southeast of the country had a swastika pinned to his waistcoat.
The unidentified teenage suspect, wielding a semi-automatic pistol and a revolver, allegedly carried out the attacks on Friday at a public school with elementary and middle school students and a private school, both located on the same street in the small town of ‘Aracruz in Espirito Santo State.
Three teachers and one student were killed. Five of the injured remained in hospital.
The suspect, identified as a 16-year-old boy who was studying at public school, was arrested by police about four hours later, Espirito Santo Governor Renato Casagrande said.
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Police officers stand at the entrance to Primo Bitti State School, one of two schools where a shooting took place, after an armed suspect opened fire, in Aracruz, Espirito Santo state , Brazil, on November 25, 2022.
(KADIJA FERNANDES/AFP via Getty Images)
Authorities did not release the suspect’s name, but said the teenager used his family’s car to drive from school to school and hid the license plate with a rag. Security camera footage showed him wearing a bulletproof vest, according to Espirito Santo’s public security secretary, Márcio Celante.
Police say the teenager had been planning the attacks for two years
The shooter allegedly gained access to the public school’s teachers’ lounge after breaking a lock.
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Casagrande said the semi-automatic weapon belonged to the military police, while the revolver was a personal weapon registered in the name of the former student’s father, a military police officer.
Relatives of students stand at the entrance to the Praia de Coqueiral Education Center, one of two schools where a shooting took place, after an armed suspect opened fire, in Aracruz, State of ‘Espirito Santo, Brazil, November 25, 2022.
(KADIJA FERNANDES/AFP via Getty Images)
The accused shooter is being held in a facility for juvenile offenders.
Police said investigations were still preliminary and they could not draw any conclusions about the motives for Friday’s shooting. They said the 16-year-old suspected attacker was wearing military-style clothing and a swastika, according to The Associated Press.
The suspect’s family said he had received psychiatric treatment, of which the school was not informed.
Primo Bitti Public School, one of two schools where a shooting took place in Aracruz, Espirito Santo state, Brazil, November 25, 2022.
(KADIJA FERNANDES/AFP via Getty Images)
“It shows how real the culture of violence is for some people, especially young people. It’s a mental health issue that society has to deal with these days,” Casagrande said.
The shootings come at a time of turmoil in the country as incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro refused to accept a narrow defeat in October’s election and protests have continued in several states for weeks.
Bolsonaro has been a strong gun rights advocate.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro arrives for a news conference two days after a narrow loss to Lula da Silva in the presidential run-off at Alvorada Palace on November 1, 2022 in Brasilia, Brazil. Bolsonaro did not concede defeat and asked his supporters to demonstrate peacefully but allow free transit through the country.
(Andresa Anholete/Getty Images)
According to the AP, earlier this year, a far-right influencer and Bolsonaro supporter said in a podcast that a Nazi party should be created in Brazil, in order to have freedom of speech.
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At the time, the president condemned the influencer’s comments and compared Nazism to communism.
In 2021, however, Bolsonaro hosted in his office and posed for photos with German lawmaker Beatrix von Storch, granddaughter of one of Hitler’s ministers.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
