The Suzano Massacre

Brazil is known for its extreme violence. The country has the highest homicide rates in the world at approximately 30.76 per 100,000 people. That rate is three times higher than the world average. Organized crime poses significant problems in the country, although other crimes like robbery, rape, and drug sales frequently occur. Gun crimes and violent crimes are common throughout Brazil but rarely do school shootings occur.

A History of School Shootings in Brazil vs. America

Since 2001, a total of five school shootings have taken place in Brazil, killing a total of 30 people. The first two school shootings happened eight years apart. In comparison, more than 70 school shootings have occurred in the U.S. during the same period, claiming hundreds of lives.

The Suzano Massacre

The Suzano Massacre is the second school shooting to occur in Brazil.

On March 19, 2019, 17-year-old Guilherme Taucci Monteiro and 25-year-old Luiz Henrique de Castro, both former students at the professor Raul Brazil State School in Suzano, opened fire at the facility, killing five students and two school employees. Eleven other people were injured but survived the attack.

The pair did not begin their murderous rampage at the school. Instead, they murdered Monteiro’s uncle at a car shop near the school a few minutes earlier. After shooting the man three times, they drove to the school in a rented car.

At 9:40 a.m. the men arrived at the school. CCTV footage showed Monteiro entering the building first. He held his head down and hid a gun in his pocket. Within seconds, he turns around and begins firing the gun at two staff members and a few students standing approximately three feet away. He then walked to the patio to look for potential victims, then came back into the school and walked to the linguistics center.

CCTV Captures the Incident

CCTV then captures Castro as he enters the building armed with several weapons, including a gun and a bow. He laid the bow on the floor and approached the corpses lying on the floor. With a hatchet, Castro began hacking away at the bodies. Frightened students continued to flee and witnessed Castro mutilating the corpses.

The students who died ranged in age between 14 and 17 years old.

Police arrived at the school and placed it on lockdown. They located a crossbow, bow and arrow, a wired bag, and possible Molotov cocktails. Police alerted a bomb squad who discovered that it was a fake explosive.

Murder-Suicide

After the school shooting, Monteiro killed de Castro and then committed suicide. The men had been friends since childhood. The men targeted the school that both previously stopped attending the school because they were bullied by students. The men had previously stated that the Columbine High School massacre in the U.S. inspired them to commit the crime.

Rio de Janeiro School Shooting of 2011

The 2019 school shooting occurred eight years after the first major school shooting in the country. In 2011, a school shooting in Rio de Janeiro claimed the lives of 12 children and injured another 22 when an armed man opened fire at the Tasso da Silveira Municipal School.

Wellington Menezes de Oliveria committed suicide after shooting up the school. Police found text messages suggesting de Oliveria was obsessed with terrorism and Islam, although no direct evidence ties the shooting to religion or terrorism.

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