Brazil
Mourning in Blumenau: dead children buried after attack
Parents sit next to the coffin containing the remains of their seven-year-old daughter, who was killed in the crèche, during a wake in Blumenau. photo
© Andre Penner/AP
A 25-year-old breaks into a facility in southern Brazil, which is dominated by German immigrants, and kills four children. The horror is huge. A wake commemorates the victims.
After the armed attack in a crèche in the southern Brazilian city of Blumenau, the children killed have been buried. Tears of sorrow flowed in the cemeteries, as the regional news portal “NSC Total” reported yesterday (local time).
Family members, friends and residents had previously held the wake for the four to seven-year-old victims in a chapel in the center of the city in the state of Santa Catarina. Parents and residents brought candles, flowers and stuffed animals to the crèche.
The authorities are investigating the background to the crime. According to the military police and the city of Blumenau, the 25-year-old attacker from the neighboring state of Paraná armed with an ax entered a private daycare center on Wednesday morning, where he attacked the children. Four children – according to Mayor Mario Hildebrandt all only children – died and others were injured.
The perpetrator was already conspicuous
The attacker turned himself in to the police at the station. He was arrested and handed over to the civilian police. The judiciary ordered pre-trial detention yesterday. His motive was initially unknown. He had already attracted attention several times, including for stabbing his stepfather.
Blumenau announced 30 days of mourning. Classes in the public education network have been canceled and should resume on Monday under increased security precautions. The Brazilian government announced the release of funds to expand police school patrols across Brazil. A working group on preventing and combating violence in schools met for the first time yesterday at the Ministry of Education.
Around ten days earlier, a teacher died in a knife attack at a school in the Brazilian metropolis of São Paulo, and other victims were injured. A 13-year-old was arrested. Compared to other countries, such attacks are rather rare in the largest country in Latin America. Brazil is one of the countries with the highest rates of violent crime, but organized crime, petty criminals and police violence account for the vast majority of it.