Gunman kills 12 in Brazil school shooting
Policemen and media stand in front of the school in Rio de Janeiro Thursday where a man believed to be a former student opened fire, killing 12 children, before taking his own life. (April 7, 2011) Credit: Getty/ANTONIO SCORZA
RIO DE JANEIRO -- A gunman roamed the halls of an elementary school in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday and killed 12 children, lining them up against a wall and shooting them in the head at point-blank range as he shouted, "I'm going to kill you all!"
It was the worst school shooting in Brazil -- and would have been deadlier if the gunman had not been shot in the legs by a police officer, who said the man then fell down some stairs and shot himself in the head.
Images taken with a cell phone and posted on YouTube showed students fleeing wildly, screaming for help, many with their white and blue school shirts soaked in blood.
The dead included 10 girls and two boys, plus the gunman, according to government officials. Those killed were between the ages of 12 and 15. One of the boys died about 12 hours after the shooting.
The gunman was identified as 23-year-old Wellington Oliveira, who had once attended the Tasso da Silveira school in a working-class neighborhood in western Rio.
No motive was known, but authorities said the shooter left a rambling and mostly incoherent letter at the scene indicating he wanted to kill himself. -- AP
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