- CCTV footage shows the attackers taking the victims to a square before shooting them.
Seven people were shot dead in a public square in a city in northeastern Brazil on Wednesday night, in an execution-style killing that authorities described as “unacceptable.”
Local television channel Verdes Mares broadcast CCTV footage showing the attackers carrying the victims to Clovis Bevilaqua Square in the city of Vicosa do Ceara with their hands on their heads and lined up side by side.
The station said the victims were at a bar near the square when the attackers pulled up in several vehicles, and the shooting took place around 3 a.m.
The reasons for this massacre have not been clarified and the victims have not yet been identified. According to Verdes Mares, one of the murdered people was wearing an electronic anklet.
The victims were between 16 and 29 years old: Ana Carolina de Sousa Rocha, 24 years old, Francisco Luan Brito da Silva, 26 years old, Ingrid Ivine de Souza Rocha, 16 years old, Isamara de Sousa Rodrigues, 25 years old.
Seven people were shot dead in a public square in a city in northeastern Brazil on Wednesday night. CCTV footage shows the attackers taking the victims to a square before shooting them.
The image shows the covered bodies of victims of Wednesday night’s execution-style massacre in the Brazilian city of Vicosa do Ceara.
The names of the three remaining people who were killed have not been confirmed.
Two people survived, being transferred to the Vicosa Municipal Hospital and then transferred to the Madalena Nunes Hospital and Maternity Hospital, in the city of Tianguá. Its current status is unknown.
“Security forces are investigating the death of seven people,” the Ceará state security secretariat reported on the social network X, adding that two others were wounded by gunshots.
“This episode of violence is unacceptable,” said the governor of Ceará, Elmano de Freitas.
This is the second execution-style attack to take place in the city in the last two years. In December 2021, four people were shot dead in his homeas reported by Verdes Mares.
Later that month, police arrested Erivan Melo da Silva, head of a criminal group operating in the area and suspected of involvement in the massacre.
Vicosa do Ceara is a city of approximately 60,000 inhabitants located 350 kilometers (217 mi) west of Fortaleza, the vibrant coastal regional capital.
Ceará is one of the poorest and most violent states in Brazil, with a homicide rate of 35.5 per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the NGO Public Security Forum.
This is well above the national average of 23.4 murders per 100,000 people, according to the latest statistics, which date back to 2022.