BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — A former student armed with a semiautomatic pistol and wearing a bulletproof vest shot dead three people and wounded 13 on Friday after storming two schools in southeastern Brazil, authorities said.
The shooting took place at a public school with primary and secondary students and a private school, both on the same street in the small town of Aracruz in Espirito Santo state, the state’s Secretary of Public Security said in a statement. Two teachers and a student were killed.
About four hours later, the shooter, identified as a 16-year-old student at the public school, was arrested by police, Espirito Santo Gov. Renato Casagrande said. Authorities did not release the name of the suspect.
Security camera footage showed the assailant wearing a bulletproof vest and using a semi-automatic pistol for attacks, Espirito Santo’s public security secretary Márcio Celante said in video provided by the ministry’s press office. Casagrande said the gun belongs to the former student’s father, a military police officer.
In addition to the fatalities, 13 people were injured, including nine instructors, Celante said, noting that at the public school the shooter entered the teachers’ room after breaking a padlock. Six of the injured, including two children, remained hospitalized as of Friday afternoon.
School shootings are rare in Brazil, but have occurred with something bigger frequency in recent years.