On Monday morning (23), a 16-year-old teenager shot and killed a fellow student and injured two others at Sapopemba State School in Jardim Sapopemba (eastern São Paulo). The shooter, a first-year high school student at the school, entered the premises around 7:30 AM, fired multiple shots, and was apprehended by the Military Police after the incident. A security camera recorded the moment when the shooter entered a classroom full of students and opened fire. There was chaos, and students fled the room in the midst of a commotion.
The victim, 17-year-old Giovanna Bezerra, was shot in the head. The two injured students were rescued and taken to the emergency room at Sapopemba Hospital – one of them has already been discharged. A third student, who was injured while fleeing, was also treated and released. The motives behind the attack are still under investigation. According to attorney Antonio Edio, who represents the shooter, the teenager claims he took this action in an attempt to address the bullying and homophobia he was experiencing.
Edio stated that the attacks escalated when the teenager started wearing feminine clothing. In April, he said, the shooter's mother filed a police report regarding assaults suffered at another school. "The mother filed a police report about the homophobia he was experiencing. She informed the school, but the only advice the school gave her was to transfer [her son] to another school," said the lawyer.
