São Paulo shooting believed to have been carefully planned
The tragedy that appalled the country this Wednesday (Mar. 13) and turned the Raul Brasil State School, in Suzano, São Paulo state, into a war scene, is a puzzle whose pieces the police are still trying to put together. Investigators are convinced a plan was meticulously devised for the crime.
João Camilo Pires de Campos, São Paulo’s secretary for Pulic Security, said the police heard testimonies and collected evidence. Some details can be confirmed regarding what happened before and during the school massacre, he said.
Early in the morning, Guilherme Taucci Monteiro, 17, and Luiz Henrique de Castro, 25, went to the car rental store run by Jorge Antonio Moraes, 51. There, they shot at the store owner, who was Guilherme’s uncle, and left the place in a stolen white Chevrolet Onix, and drove further to the school.
As an ex-student of the public school, Guilherme asked permission to enter at around 9:40 am, and was granted access to the premises. It was recess, and students were eating outside their classrooms.
The exact moment when Guilherme donned his mask is not known, but the first person to be shot was school Coordinator Marilena Ferreira Vieira Umezo, 59, and then school worker Eliana Regina de Oliveira Xavier, 38. The two shooters were together at the school entrance.
Based on the first testimonies, the police believe that the two gunmen started the attack together. They are believed to have panicked after coming across a locked door at the Language Center and realizing they had been cornered by the police.
The police was called because of the attack at the car rental place and arrived at the school in eight minutes. When the police met the two, they were ready to step into a classroom full of students. This is when one of the youths shot the other and then killed himself, Secretary Pires said.
