30 killed in violence-torn Brazilian city

At least 30 people, including three children, have been killed in a Rio de Janeiro suburb by gunmen the state security chief, say she believes were rogue police officers. It is the worst death squad massacre in the violence-torn Brazilian city in more than a decade.

Marcelo Itagiba, Rio’s Public Security Secretary, said rogue police likely carried out the massacre as a reprisal for the arrests earlier on Thursday, of officers suspected of a separate double murder. The arrests were part of a crackdown on death squads formed by rogue police officers to carry out criminal acts and other criminal activity by police.

The group of shooters first killed 15 people in the Nova Iguazu neighbourhood at around 8:40 pm (local time) on Thursday, followed by another 15 people an hour later in Queimados, said the Secretary of Security of Rio de Janeiro state Marcelo Itagiba.

“We are relying on the cooperation of residents of the entire region to carry out the investigation,” said security inspector-general Joao Carlos Ferreira “We are not ruling out any hypothesis.”

Witnesses to the latest shooting said the gunmen fired at random, leaving innocent victims no time to escape.

“It was very quick. I got up to my house and went down the hallway when I heard a rain of gunfire. We were stunned. When we arrived, the car (carrying the shooters) had already left,” Creuza Regina, the grandmother of one victim, told reporters.

This was the worst urban massacre in over a decade in Brazil. In 1993, 21 people were murdered in Rio’s Vigario Geral by a death squad made up of military police.

International human rights often criticized Rio police and say they have a history of summary executions. Security officials said police killed 983 “suspects” last year and 1,195 in 2003.

Police experts blame poor oversight, outdated anti-crime tactics; corrupt officers who cooperate with drug runners, and are poorly paid for the risky work, that can encourage outlaw behavior. Last year, some 50 Rio police were killed in the line of duty.

The city is plagued by violent crime, with rival drug gangs controlling many slum areas, known as favelas, and defying the authorities.