Brazil: School shooter wore Nazi symbol, planned attack for two years

A former Brazilian student murdered three people and injured thirteen more with a semiautomatic pistol and a revolver at two separate schools. He allegedly planned the assaults over the course of two years and wore a Nazi emblem on his vest.

Both the public elementary and middle school and the private high school where the shootings occurred were on the same street in the town of Aracruz in the state of Espirito Santo in southeast Brazil on Friday. A student and two educators were murdered.

Espirito Santo's governor, Renato Casagrande, claimed that four hours after the shooting, the police had apprehended the suspect, a 16-year-old lad who had previously attended the public school. The suspect's identity was withheld by authorities.

The adolescent allegedly used the family vehicle to go between schools, with the licence plate covered up by a cloth, as reported by the authorities.

Marcio Celante, secretary of public safety in Espirito Santo, said that surveillance video proved the suspect was wearing a bulletproof vest. The public school gunman was able to enter the teachers' lounge by breaching a lock.

According to Casagrande, the military police owned the semiautomatic weapon, and the former student's father, who also served in the military police, owned the revolver. The shooter is now being housed in a juvenile detention centre.

Attacks against schools in Brazil are very rare, however they have increased somewhat in frequency in recent years.

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On August 1, a former student in the city of Vitoria stormed his school armed with homemade bombs and knives, not far from where Friday's atrocities took place. Neither the instructors nor the pupils were hurt.

Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's president, is an outspoken advocate for the right to bear arms. More than 40 laws have been passed in Brazil in the previous four years, according to experts, making it simpler for citizens to purchase and register firearms. A research released in September by the Sou da Paz Institute, a civil society organisation, found that Brazilians are purchasing more than a thousand weapons everyday.

(With inputs from PTI)