At least 3 people killed and 11 others injured in Brazil school shootings
Three men and three women were killed and 11 others were injured when two men opened fire at a grammar school in the city of Jacarezinho, in the southern state of Rio de Janeiro, on Wednesday morning, police said.
A 14-year-old girl was among those hurt in the shooting, while a teacher was also injured and taken to hospital, according to the Associated Press.
The three men in the shooting were killed by police after they barricaded themselves in the school, according to reports.
The city of Jacarezinho is a middle-class community of around 90,000 people about 45 minutes from Rio, but police said the area has seen regular shootings in recent years, which have left several people dead.
In 2017, 17 people were killed in the city and its surroundings in shootings between February and June. Last year, 11 people were killed, eight of whom were police officers.
The school was not immediately open for pupils and had just a few teachers the morning of the shooting, according to a police chief.
“It’s the first shooting in Jacarezinho this year,” chief Manuel de Oliveira told the news site G1. “We can’t say anything about the motive or the number of shooters. We’re trying to identify the perpetrators, and we’re also working to avoid accidents like this.”
At least two people had been arrested in the last several months at the school since it had earlier received reports of an intruder, and the school was empty when the shooter arrived, according to G1.
The school did not have any surveillance cameras, and police said that some students had also been targeted in previous shootings.
“The suspect who opened fire at the school is on a list of people who have been suspected of having a criminal character,” police chief Oliveira said. “He was not a student.”
A witness told local media he had heard four gunshots at about 6:20am (10: