Brazil: Boy, 16 'Wore Swastika' During Fatal Shootings. Pres. Bolsonaro Vocal Gun Rights Supporter
- Brazil. ' Boy, 16, wore swastika during fatal school shootings in Brazil,' The Guardian, AP, Nov. 26, 2022. - Ed.
Teenager was armed with a military semiautomatic pistol & his fathers revolver. A former student armed with a semiautomatic pistol & a revolver who killed 3 people & wounded 13 in two schools in Brazil had a swastika pinned to his vest & had been planning the attacks for 2 years, police said.The shootings took place on Friday at a state school with primary & middle school students & a private school, both on the same street in the small town of Aracruz in Espírito Santo state in eastern Brazil. Two teachers and a student were killed. About 4 hours later, the shooter, identified as a 16-year-old boy who used to study at the state school, was arrested by police, said Renato Casagrande, the governor of Espírito Santo.
Authorities did not release the suspects name. Authorities say the teenager used his familys car to go from one school to the other, & had the licence plate hidden by a cloth. Security camera footage showed him wearing a bulletproof vest, according to Espírito Santos public security secretary. The shooter gained access to the teachers lounge in the state school after breaking a lock. Casagrande said the semiautomatic weapon belonged to the military police, while the revolver was a personal weapon registered in the name of the boys father, a military police officer. The shooter is being held at a facility for underaged criminals.
School attacks are uncommon in Brazil, but have happened more frequently in recent years.
Not far from where Fridays attacks occurred, in the city of Vitória, a former student entered his school with homemade explosives & knives in August. No students or teachers were injured. A month later, in the NE state of Bahia, another teenager used his fathers gun to shoot & killed a student in a wheelchair. Both attackers had met online at chat groups, police later found. Police say investigations are still preliminary & they cannot jump to any conclusions about the motives for Fridays shootings. But they said the attacker was wearing military-style clothing & a swastika. The family said he has received psychiatric treatment, which the school had not been told about.
This shows how the violence culture is a reality for some people, especially young people. This is a mental health issue which society has to deal with nowadays, said Casagrande. President Jair Bolsonaro has been a vocal supporter of gun rights. Experts say that in the past 4 years more than 40 decrees were passed making it easier for Brazilians to buy & register weapons. Sou da Paz Institute, a civil society organisation, said in a report in September that Brazilians are buying more than a thousand weapons a day. -- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/26/boy-16-killed-three-people-and-wounded-13-in-two-schools-in-brazil