Brazil bus hijacker shot by police
- by Virginia Carter
- in World Media
- — Aug 23, 2019
A man who had taken a bus full of passengers' hostage on a bridge in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil was shot to death by a police sniper, local police said on Tuesday.
The standoff on the bridge connecting the city of Niteroi to Rio de Janeiro as broadcast live.
After holding the passengers hostage for hours, a hijacker has been shot dead by police.
It is noted that the bus is surrounded by police who began negotiations with the man. He reportedly boarded the bus at 05:30 (0830 GMT) and threatened passengers.
Traffic was blocked in both directions on the bridge, with hundreds of vehicles waiting in line at a time when people would be making their way to work.
Witzel, whose tough on crime message helped get him elected previous year, said he was sure the incident was "linked to organized crime which encourages this type of terrorism".
The bus had been on its way to Rio, a sprawling city of more than six million people where deadly violence is common.
All the hostages were freed unharmed on a 13-kilometre bridge that offers a sweeping view of Rio de Janeiro's Sugarloaf Mountain and the statue of Christ the Redeemer.
Footage aired on Brazilian TV showed a female hostage walking away from the bus and fainting.
"If the police could do their job and shoot people with rifles, so many victims would be spared", Witzel said on TV Globo.
A spokesman for the military police told a local TV channel that a sniper opened fire when the hijacker appeared at the door of the bus, pointing a weapon at the head of one of the hostages. It emerged that the assailant had been shot dead by a sniper.
The man had placed plastic bottles cut in half and partially filled with gasoline throughout the bus, said Nunes, a member of an elite police squad. The conclusion to the hijacking, which resulted in no hostage casualties, represented a victory for the governor, who has come under growing pressure in recent weeks over the number of people slain by cops.
It is not clear if he made any demands or what his motivation was for taking the hostages.
The episode reminded many Brazilians of shocking images from a bus seizure in Rio de Janeiro in 2000 during which a hostage and the gunman were killed.
The hijacker and one hostage were killed.
