MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Teenager killed in another high-school shooting in Brazil

“This mode of violence has implanted itself in Brazil,” Dino explained

A 16-year-old female pupil was killed Monday at the Professor Helena Kolody School in the city of Cambé in the Brazilian State of Paraná when a former student walked into the premises carrying a gun, Agencia Brasil reported citing local authorities.

According to a statement from the State's government, the former student would have entered the school claiming that he would request his school transcript. “According to initial information, there was an episode of violence, a student died and another student was shot and is hospitalized,” the document read.

The perpetrator has been arrested and sent to Londrina, about 15 kilometers from Cambé. Governor Ratinho Junior decreed three days of mourning and regretted the occurrence.

“Unfortunately, we saw violence once again manifesting itself in the place that is the most sacred for the children and young people of our country and their families, which is a school,” Federal Justice Minister Flávio Dino said from Rio de Janeiro. He also expressed his solidarity with the victims' families.

“When a young person loses her life, in fact, all youth have lost a piece of their life. I am a father, and so I know well the uneasiness that afflicts families to the extent that, in an unacceptable way, this mode of violence has implanted itself in Brazil and serves as a reflection as to the cultural traits of violence,” Dino added.

The gunman told police that he did not know the victims and that he committed the attack as a form of retaliation for what he suffered at the school in the past.

According to the Civil Police, the shooter said that his goal was to attack young people, because, for him, “he would be retaliating for that suffering” and sorrow he kept from the time he studied at Helena Kolody.

Paraná Public Safety Secretary Hudson Teixeira said that the shooter confirmed having no link with the victims. “What he reports is that he has no link with these people he shot,” Teixeira said at a press conference. He added that the perpetrator had already staged a knife attack at another school in the past and was denounced by the Public Ministry. At the time, the Military Police was summoned, but he fled.

The Helena Kolody State School incident is the latest in a total of three deadly attacks at Brazilian schools this year. Since January, at least six people have died as a result of violent acts at schools nationwide.

(Source: Agencia Brasil)