Deadly School Shooting Was 'Inspired by Columbine'

Former students killed 5 pupils, 3 adults in Brazil
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 14, 2019 2:35 AM CDT
Updated Mar 14, 2019 3:32 AM CDT
Brazil School Shooting Was 'Inspired by Columbine'
The scene outside the Raul Brasil State School in Suzano, SP, Brazil on March 13, 2019 .   (Sipa via AP Images)

Police in Brazil say Wednesday's school shooting near Sao Paulo was apparently inspired by another massacre that involved two shooters: the infamous 1999 Columbine school shooting in Colorado. The shooters at the Raul Brasil school in Suzano, who killed at least five students and two adults after storming the institution during a morning break, have been identified as former students 17-year-old Guilherme Taucci Monteiro and 25-year-old Henrique de Castro, the Guardian reports. Police say Monteiro used a .38 caliber handgun while de Castro had a crossbow. They were also armed with Molotov cocktails, knives, and axes, police say.

Monteiro's mother told local news that her son left the school because he had been bullied. Police say that before attacking the school, the pair killed Monteiro's uncle, who owned a used car business, and stole a vehicle. A police source tells Reuters that the pair spent more than a year planning the attack, "which they hoped would draw more attention than the Columbine massacre." Initial reports said both attackers took their own lives, but authorities now say that when police arrived as the pair were trying to force their way into a room where students were hiding, Monteiro shot de Castro in the head before turning the gun on himself. (More school shooting stories.)

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