Brazil school shooting toll rises to four after teacher death, Officials reported that a teacher injured in the attack by a 16-year-old shooter wearing Nazi symbols died from her injuries on Saturday, bringing the death toll from the twin school shootings in Brazil to four. The attack on Friday shocked the nation, which has seen an increase in school shootings in recent years. Authorities in the city of Aracruz, in the state of Espirito Santo, had said some of the roughly 10 injured, including three teachers and a student, were in serious condition.
Brazil school shooting toll rises to four after teacher death
“Unfortunately, the tragedy of Aracruz has not yet ended,” said state Governor Renato Casagrande on Saturday. “With deep regret we confirm the death of another victim, teacher Flavia Amboss Mercon,” tweeted the governor, who had declared three days of mourning in Espirito Santo.
The shooter was a former student at the public school he targeted first, where he fired on a group of teachers, killing two people and wounding some nine others. He then went to a nearby private school where he killed an adolescent girl and left several more people wounded.
He has been arrested and will face charges of murder and attempted aggravated murder, Espirito Santo police said. Relatives of the other three people killed held wakes on Saturday, according to Brazilian media. “My daughter was always light and love. I lost my daughter to hate,” Thais Sagrillo, the mother of a 12-year-old girl who was killed, told Globonews.
The attack was the twelfth school shooting in Brazil since 2002, according to research institute Sou da Paz. The latest attacks spurred calls for gun policy reform, with critics hitting out at a series of presidential decrees relaxing regulations on firearms and ammunition under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.
In last month’s elections, Bolsonaro was beaten by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has been harshly critical of the former army captain’s easing of gun control legislation. The gunman, who was a police officer’s son, was alleged to have used two handguns in the attack, both of which were registered to his father: one was a service gun and the other was a privately registered weapon.
According to Casagrande, the child seemed to have methodically planned the attack. The gunman was captured on security camera footage racing inside the school while armed and wearing military-style camouflage, according to Brazilian media reports. He had a swastika on his fatigues, according to investigators, and they were checking into whether he had ties to any extremist groups.
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