Ex-President Lula’s tour bus confirmed to have been hit by two gunshots

One of the three buses making up former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s caravan, which toured through Paraná state last week, was hit by two gunshots, according to an official report drafted by experts from the Forensic Institute, released in a press conference Thursday (Apr. 5), in Curitiba.

The shots were reported to have hit the right side of the vehicle. One of the bullets, which investigators have been retrieved, went through the bus’s bodywork and was stopped by a sheet of steel. The second projectile scratched the glass and could not be found. Samples of lead were detected at both points.

At the moment when the shots were fired, the former leader’s caravan was making the 60 km way between the cities of Quedas do Iguaçu and Laranjeiras do Sul, in Western Paraná, south Brazil.

Expert Inajar Kurowski explained that the weapon was a .32 caliber gun, therefore with a low fire rate. “This gun has been discontinued. Both the gun and its ammunition are no longer manufactured,” he stated. He did not wish to name the exact type of gun used, but said it could be a two-barreled pistol known as “garrucha.” “It’s totally out of use […]. People own one if they’re collectors, or as an heirloom. They’re firearms that can still be found in circulation,” he went on to note.

Hélder Lauria, the police investigator in charge of the case, says that, even though the report makes the investigation easier, there are still no suspects. He further declared that 15 witnesses have been heard, among them passengers, people near the places visited by the bus, and highway officers following the tour.

On the website of Lula’s Workers’ Party (PT), the tour—made as part of Lula’s project across Brazil—is said to be aimed at examining the reality facing Brazilians regarding the changes wrought in the country under past PT administrations as well as the blatant efforts that have been made by “coup-mongering government leaders” to dismantle development and social inclusion initiatives and public policies since 2016.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira