Shocking footage shows armed police entering a restaurant to capture a fugitive on the run, armed with a 7.62-calibre assault rifle, who had taken some children hostage
This is the terrifying moment an on-the-run gunman who had taken hostages at a children’s birthday party is seized by heavily armed police.
The fugitive, armed with a 7.62-calibre assault rifle, had burst into a restaurant in Paranaguá, in the Brazilian state of Paraná’s, after escaping police and tried to hide. Shocking footage from the hostage drama shows the gunman pretending to be one of the party guests as pursuing police arrive at the eatery on October 27.
Two heavily armed officers with their guns then force him apart from the terrified children he had been using as human shields. Parents can be seen pulling their sobbing children away as they stare straight into the Military Police guns.
After forcing him to raise his hands, one of the officers gets the suspect in a jujitsu stranglehold and takes the gunman to the ground where his partner handcuffs him. Police later found his military-issue assault rifle, rounds of live ammunition and fake police badges hidden nearby.
It later emerged that police had been hunting for the gunman, who has not been named, after he fled with his rifle during a car stop. He is being held by police on firearms charges, reports local media.
According to non-profit organisation InSight Crime, Paraná is a hub for drug trafficking, as vast quantities of cocaine and marijuana enter the Brazilian state from Paraguay, via the Paraná River, and from Foz do Iguaçu. Contraband, illicit firearms flood, sex and labour trafficking are also common in the state, the think-tank said.
In August, a teenager was killed when a would-be victim suddenly charged two robbers on a motorbike, fatally shooting one in the head. Otavio de Jesus Ribeiro, 36, had been walking home in Guarulhos, Brazil, when two armed bikers held him at gunpoint in the early hours of August 5.
Backed against a wall, he was powerless as the passenger riding pillion on the bike – a 16-year-old boy – took his wallet and phone. CCTV footage showed how Otavio was a placid victim one moment, before suddenly rushing the pair on the bike, knocking them down. In the ensuing confusion, the teenager dropped his gun which Otavio picked up.
As the robber ran at him, he fired several times, as the boy dropped to the ground dead. Not content, he then ran at the teen’s accomplice who sped away on his bike. Police say paramedics rushed the gunman to hospital but he died from multiple gunshot wounds in the emergency room. Ribeiro later turned himself and the robbers’ revolver in to police saying he had acted in self-defence.