Nine people were injured in a shooting that occurred this Sunday, the eve of Christmasbetween police officers and alleged criminals on an avenue in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, official sources reported.
According to the Military Police, a patrol stopped a vehicle “with a suspicious attitude” leaving the Maré favela complex and “immediately” the men who were inside the car They fired firearms at the agents.
From there a “confrontation” with the agents began until the suspects “managed to flee,” according to the entity in a note.
With everything, “nine people were hit by gunfire during the attack” and transferred to Bonsucesso General Hospital. According to local media, two of the injured They are in serious condition.
The alleged criminals shot at “three cars” that were passing at that time on Avenida Brasil, where the incident occurred, and “a patrol car” of the Rio Military Police.
The Brazilian authorities agreed on the area to begin the expert work with the aim of identifying those responsible.
Police surveillance in that region had already intensified since Saturday, after an attempted theft of a vehicle occurred at another point on Avenida Brasil near where the shooting took place this Sunday.
The Civil Police reported in a note that opened an investigation to clarify the facts.
With almost seven million inhabitants, Rio de Janeiro is the most touristic city in Brazil, but also one of the most violent due to frequent shootouts between drug trafficking gangs, vigilante groups and security forces.
The governor of Rio de Janeiro, Claudio Castro, who defends a ‘hard line’ policy against violence, has proposed during his mandate to capture the three big bosses of organized crime in the city: the militiamen ‘Zinho’ and Danilo Tandera , and drug trafficker Wilton Carlos Rabello Quintanilha, alias ‘Abelha’.
