Brazilian police: school muggers mimicking the Columbine massacre

SUZANO, Brazil – Two young men who killed seven people stormed their old school in southern Brazil, armed with a rifle, crossbows and axes, were trying to reproduce the Columbine was attacked in Colorado in 1999 and had been planning the attack for months, the police said on Thursday. .

Friends and former clbadmates told investigators that Guilherme Taucci Monteiro, 17, and Henrique de Castro, 25, were obsessed with the attack on Columbine High School, said at a press conference. a press conference the director of the Sao Paulo Civil Police, Ruy Ferraz. He added that both men had been planning the attack since at least November.

Mr. Ferraz said that his relatives did not think that the attack would actually occur or were afraid to tell anyone to make them become targets.

The Columbine attack, also carried out by two heavily armed young men, left 13 dead. And as in Wednesday's rampage, Columbine's badailants committed suicide.

Monteiro and de Castro "wanted to prove that they could act as at Columbine High School with cruelty and with a tragic character to be recognized more than" even the killers of Columbine, Ferraz said.

Ferraz said that a third person, a 17-year-old former student of the school, had participated in the planning but was not present at school at the time of writing. attack.

He did not identify the accomplice but said that the police had asked a judge to issue a warrant for the arrest of the young person.

The events occurred a few hours after clbadmates, friends and relatives of the victims began to say goodbye during a mbad vigil in Suzano, a suburb of Sao Paulo, where the attack took place. occurred.

Before launching the badault on the school, the police said the attackers had shot dead uncle Monteiro, owner of a nearby used car dealership. Monteiro had worked at the dealership but had been fired by his uncle for minor crimes.

What happened next in kindergarten to grade 12, partially filmed by a surveillance camera at the entrance of the building and widely circulated in Brazil, was turned upside down.

He showed Monteiro coming in and shooting several people at the head as they tried to run away. De Castro followed, first striking the wounded with an ax, then swinging him wildly while dozens of students pbaded him. De Castro then armed his crossbow and walked further into the school.

The dead included five students, a teacher, and a school administrator. Nine others were injured in the attack, including seven still hospitalized on Thursday.

"I could not sleep. I have two children in school and they have about the age of the victims, "said Wanda Augusta, a 46-year-old housewife.

"If only we could have identified the difficulties of these boys" before the attack, said Rossieli Soares, State Secretary for Education, who attended the wake on a volleyball track. "It's a problem in our society."

Police seized computers and notebooks in the homes of two attackers, neighbors and residents within one kilometer of the school. They also took computers from an arcade near the school frequented by the attackers.

While the largest country in Latin America has serious problems of violence – it is the world's number one annual homicide – shootings in schools like the United States are rare. Wednesday's attack reminded many Brazilians of the 2011 attack, when an armed man roamed the corridors of a school in Rio de Janeiro and killed 12 students.

Joao Camilo Pires de Campos, Secretary of Public Security of the State of Sao Paulo, summarized the concerns of many Brazilians.

"The big question is: what was the motivation of these former students?", He told reporters Wednesday.

Monteiro's mother, Tatiana Taucci, offered a partial response, saying her son had been bullied at school.

"The intimidation, they call it. … he stopped going to school … because of that, "she told the Band News TV network.

Nevertheless, she said she was as surprised as anyone by her son's involvement in the attack, which she said she had heard on TV, like everyone else.

Police chief Ferraz said that although some witnesses had reported bullying, they did not think it would make sense for the investigation.

A few minutes before the school's outburst, Monteiro posted 26 photos on his Facebook page, including several with a gun and another showing him giving the middle finger while looking into the camera.

In some photos he wore a black scarf with a white skull print and crossbones. No text has accompanied the messages.

During the attack, Monteiro opened fire with a 38-gauge handgun and Castro used a crossbow, Campos said.

The attackers also carried Molotov badtails, knives and small axes, the authorities said.

One of the injured, Jose Vitor, has rushed to a hospital near the school with an ax still stuck to the right shoulder.

"He's an agile teenager," said his mother, Sandra Regina Ramos, outside the hospital. "He reacted quickly."

The attackers tried to force their way into a room at the back of the school where many students were hiding when the police arrived. Instead of facing the police, Monteiro shot Castro in the head and then committed suicide, the authorities said.

Katia Sastre, a policewoman elected to Congress after a video shows her killing an armed robber in front of her daughter's school became viral last year, called on the authorities to strengthen security in schools.

"This could have been avoided if outstanding citizens were able to defend themselves and bear arms," ​​said Sastre, a former student of the school attacked on Wednesday.

The debate on the desirability of expanding access to firearms, a priority of the administration of President Jair Bolsonaro, featured in many public statements by politicians. Shortly after his inauguration on January 1, Bolsonaro issued a decree facilitating the purchase of a firearm. His party plans to introduce legislation that would go even further, easing restrictions on transportation and the number and type of guns that Brazilians can own.

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Prengaman reported from Rio de Janeiro. Anna Jean Kaiser contributed to reports from Rio de Janeiro.

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