Brazilian police said the 16-year-old suspect who allegedly killed four people and wounded 12 others in shootings at two schools in the country’s southeast wore a swastika pinned to his vest.
An unidentified teenager armed with a semi-automatic pistol and a revolver allegedly carried out Friday’s attacks on a public elementary and middle school and a private school located on the same street in the town Aracruz in the state of Espiritu Santo.
Three teachers and a student died. Five wounded remained in the hospital.
the suspect identified as a 16-year-old boy who attended a public school, was arrested by police about four hours later, Espirito Santo Gov. Renato Casagrande said.
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Police officers stand at the entrance of the Prima Beati public school, one of two schools where a shooting occurred after an armed suspect opened fire, in Aracruz, Espiritu 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 was traveling from one school to another in his family’s car, with the license plate hidden by a cloth. Security camera footage shows him wearing a bulletproof vest, according to Public Safety Secretary Espirito Santo Marcia Celante.
Police said the teenager had been planning the attacks for two years
The shooter is believed to have gained access to the staff lounge at the public school after picking the lock.
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Casagrande said the semi-automatic weapon belonged to the military police and the revolver was a personal weapon registered to the former student’s father, a military police officer.
Relatives of students stand at the entrance of the Praia de Coqueiral Education Center, one of two schools where a shooting occurred after an armed suspect opened fire in Aracruz, Espiritu Santo state, Brazil, on November 25, 2022.
(KADIJA FERNANDES/AFP via Getty Images)
The accused shooter is in a juvenile detention center.
Police say the investigation is still preliminary and that they cannot jump to conclusions about a motive for Friday’s shooting. They said the 16-year-old alleged attacker was wearing military fatigues and carrying a swastika, the Associated Press reported.
The suspect’s family said he was received psychiatric treatment, which the school was not told about.
Prima Beati Public School, one of two schools where a shooting occurred in Aracruz, Espiritu Santo state, Brazil, on November 25, 2022.
(KADIJA FERNANDES/AFP via Getty Images)
“It shows that a culture of violence is a reality for some people, especially young people. It’s a mental health issue facing society today,” Casagrande said.
The shooting comes amid a period of unrest in the country, with incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro refusing to concede a narrow defeat in October’s election and protests continuing in several states for weeks.
Bolsonaro has been an active supporter of gun rights.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro arrives for a press conference two days after narrowly defeating Lula da Silva in the second round of the presidential election at Alvarado Palace on November 1, 2022 in Brasilia, Brazil. Bolsonaro did not admit his defeat and asked his supporters to protest peacefully, but to allow free transit through the country.
(Andresa Anholete/Getty Images)
According to the AP, earlier this year, a far-right influencer and supporter of Bolsonaro said in a podcast that Brazil needed to create a Nazi party 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.
However, in 2021, he received Bolsonaro in his office and took pictures with him a German legislator Beatrix von Storch, granddaughter of one of Hitler’s ministers.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
