Shooter fired on a group of teachers at his former school, killing two people and leaving nine others wounded
\nWeb Desk
\nTexas
\nAt least three people including an adolescent girl were killed and 11 others wounded Friday when a 16-year-old shooter wearing Nazi symbols opened fire on two schools in southeastern Brazil, officials said.
\nAuthorities in the city of Aracruz, in Espirito Santo state, said the shooter fired on a group of teachers at his former school, killing two people and leaving nine others wounded.
\nHe then left that school — a public primary and secondary school — and went to a nearby private school where he killed an adolescent girl and wounded two other people, officials said.
\nAuthorities have arrested the shooter, said Governor Renato Casagrande, who declared three days of mourning in the state.
\n\u201cHe was a student at (the first) school until June, a 16-year-old minor. His family then transferred him to another school. We have information he was undergoing psychiatric treatment,\u201d Casagrande told a news conference. He said some of the survivors\u2019 lives remained at risk from their wounds. \u201cWe are rooting and praying for them to recover,\u201d he said.
\nSecurity camera footage aired on Brazilian media showed the shooter running into the school dressed in military-style camouflage and brandishing a gun. He then sprinted through the hallways, sending staff fleeing in terror as he began firing shots.
\nInvestigators said he had a swastika on his fatigues and that they were looking into whether he had links to any extremist organisations.
\nOfficials said the shooter, a policeman\u2019s son, used two handguns in the attack, both registered to his father — one his service firearm, the other a privately registered weapon.
\nCasagrande said the boy appeared to have planned the attack carefully, breaking in through a locked door and skirting the school\u2019s security guard.
\nHe then entered the teachers\u2019 lounge — the first room he came to — and opened fire, the governor said.
\n\u201cHe was looking to shoot people. He opened fire on the first people he came across,\u201d he said.
\nCivil police commissioner Joao Francisco Filho told reporters it appeared the suspect had been planning the attack for \u201ctwo years,\u201d and that he did not seem to have a \u201cdefinite target.\u201d
\nInvestigators could be seen carrying victims\u2019 bodies in coffins and loading them into police trucks outside the school, which was cordoned off with crime scene tape, an AFP photographer said. The city has a population of around 100,000 people.<\/p>\n
\u2018Absurd tragedy\u2019
\nSchool shootings are relatively rare in Brazil, but have been increasing in recent years. Brazil\u2019s deadliest school shooting left 12 children dead in 2011, when a man opened fire at his former elementary school in the Rio de Janeiro suburb of Realengo, then killed himself.
\nIn 2019, two former students shot dead eight people at a high school in Suzano, outside Sao Paulo, then also took their own lives. Brazilian president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called the latest shootings an \u201cabsurd tragedy.\u201d
\n\u201cI was saddened to learn of the attacks,\u201d he wrote on Twitter.
\n\u201cAll my solidarity to the victims\u2019 families… and my support to Governor Casagrande for the investigation and assistance to the two school communities.\u201d
\nLula, who was previously Brazil\u2019s president from 2003 to 2010, will take office on January 1 after defeating far-right President Jair Bolsonaro in elections last month.
\nHe has been sharply critical of Bolsonaro\u2019s dramatic relaxation of gun-control laws.
\nSince ex-army captain Bolsonaro became president in 2019, the number of registered gun owners in Brazil has more than quintupled, from 117,000 to 673,000, boosted by a series of presidential decrees relaxing regulations on firearms and ammunition.
\nPublic security expert Bruno Langeani of research institute Sou da Paz told AFP the outgoing administration\u2019s policies had made such attacks more likely. \u201cThe increase in availability of firearms in recent years promoted by the Bolsonaro government facilitates this kind of episode,\u201d he said.
\nThe latest attacks spurred calls for gun policy reform. \u201cGun policy needs to be reviewed,\u201d tweeted senator-elect Wellington Dias, a Lula ally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Shooter fired on a group of teachers at his former school, killing two people and leaving nine others wounded Web Desk Texas At least three people including an adolescent girl were killed and 11 others wounded Friday when a 16-year-old shooter wearing Nazi symbols opened fire on two schools in southeastern Brazil, officials said. Authorities […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297720,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-297682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n