The escalation of the gang war in Ceará has meant that even schools are no longer safe spaces.
On Thursday (25), two students were shot and killed during recess at a state school in Sobral. Three others were injured.
The Military Police say the attack is linked to disputes over drug trafficking in the area near the school by criminal groups. With one of the victims, the police say they seized drugs.
A security camera captured the moment when two men parked a motorcycle on the street, got off, and walked toward the school. Gunshots are heard. The shooters then fled.
“It is a violence that invades places that should be sacred, such as schools, universities, churches. There are signs that the action was calculated, premeditated; in other words, the gangs no longer fear openly displaying their violence, not even in a school,” said César Barreira, founder of the Violence Studies Laboratory at the Federal University of Ceará.
Sobral is among the most violent cities in Brazil. According to the Brazilian Yearbook of Public Security, it has a homicide rate of 59.9 per 100,000 inhabitants, the 12th highest in the country.
