18/08/2015 Brazil: Police Suspected in Killings of 18 - The New York Times

http://nyti.ms/1gInh5Y

AMERICAS | WORLD BRIEFING

Brazil: Police Suspected in Killings of 18

By SIMON ROMERO AUG. 14, 2015

The authorities in São Paulo said Friday that they were investigating
whether police officers were involved in a series of execution-style killings
that left at least 18 people dead. The shootings were carried out by gunmen
wearing balaclavas during a span of about three hours on Thursday night in
the metropolitan area of São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, according to video
images captured on security cameras and witness accounts. “When we get
to the suspects, whether they are police or not, we’ll act quickly to detain
them,” Alexandre de Moraes, the top security official in São Paulo State,
told reporters. He said investigators were examining whether the killings
were reprisals for the recent shooting deaths of two police officers. The
killings added to concern among human rights groups over a spate of
similar episodes in Brazil that have left dozens dead in other cities,
including Manaus and Belém. Police officers killed at least 2,212 people in
Brazil in 2013, though the actual number of such killings around the
country is thought to be much higher because some states do not report
them.

A version of this brief appears in print on August 15, 2015, on page A6 of the New York edition
with the headline: The Americas; Brazil: Police Suspected in Killings of 18.

© 2015 The New York Times Company

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