Wellington Menezes de Oliveira

Case details

Wellington Menezes de Oliveira (July 13, 1987 - April 7, 2011) carried out a shooting rampage at Tasso da Silveira Municipal School (Escola Municipal Tasso da Silveira), an elementary school in Realengo on the western fringe of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on the morning of April 7, 2011.

Timeline

• April 7, 2011 — A lone gunman entered the school at around 08:30 local time and began shooting; the victims were killed and others were seriously wounded.
• April 7, 2011 — Rio de Janeiro military policeman Third Sergeant Márcio Alexandre Alves shot the gunman in the leg and in the stomach; the gunman fell down a staircase and committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.
• April 7, 2011 — Oliveira’s body was removed from the school at 12:20 local time.
• Two days after the shooting — The twelfth child's body was cremated.
• The day after the shooting — Eleven of the twelve children killed were buried in the Brazilian tradition of holding services within a day of a person's death.
• Two weeks after his death — Oliveira’s body was buried in a potter's field at the Caju Cemetery.
• April 9, 2011 — The house where Oliveira lived was subject of pixação with writings saying "Murderer" and "Coward".
• April 10, 2011 — A group of protesters hung blood-stained Brazilian flags on Copacabana beach in honor of the children who died in the shooting.
• April 12, 2011 — Three policemen who responded to the shooting were condecorated for act of bravery by the Brazilian vice president Michel Temer.
• April 7, 2011 — President Dilma Rousseff declared three days of national mourning and shed tears during her speech to the public regarding the incident.
• A few hours later after the incident — The State Governor, Sérgio Cabral, and the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, addressed the press at the site of the shooting.
• April 8, 2011 — International press reported that it was not clear whether the gunman shot himself or was killed by police, and it was believed he was a former student at the school.

The offence

On the morning of April 7, 2011, 12 children aged between 10 and 13 were killed and 20 others seriously wounded after an armed man entered Tasso da Silveira Municipal School in Realengo.

A lone gunman, Wellington Oliveira, entered the school at around 08:30 local time, identifying himself as a former student and asking to see his school history. By presenting himself as such, his entrance was allowed. Instead of heading to the school’s office, he proceeded to the second floor and entered an eighth grade classroom.

Some victim accounts said that Oliveira was initially very polite, saluting the children and putting his bag on a table, but soon after he shot a number of pupils. The perpetrator was armed with a .38-caliber and a .32-caliber revolver with a number of speedloaders.

A boy who survived the attack said that Oliveira selectively shot girls while shooting boys only to immobilize them. Ten of the twelve children killed were girls. The children ran out of the school as soon as Oliveira started shooting.

After the attack began in an eighth grade classroom, a barricade formed in the remaining classrooms on the third floor, where students and teachers had barricaded themselves inside.

Police estimate that over 60 shots were fired by the perpetrator during the shooting.

Investigation

The police estimated that over 60 shots were fired by the perpetrator during the shooting.

Oliveira’s body was found with two pistols, a .38 caliber and a .32 caliber, some speedloaders and a bandolier with 18 unused rounds.

The .32 revolver belonged to a man who died in 1994, and according to his son, it was stolen from him by the time of his death. The police apprehended the two men who illegally sold the weapon to the perpetrator. They said the seller who sold the weapon to Wellington also sold the speedloaders and a huge quantity of ammo, possibly the same rounds used in the shooting.

Despite the .38 revolver having its serial number almost totally scratched-off, police located the weapon’s original owner: a 57 year-old man who worked on a slaughterhouse and was a former co-worker of the perpetrator.

Police said they found no concrete evidence of a religious or political motive for the attack.

Arrest / confrontation with police

Two policemen who were patrolling the area were alerted to the shooting by two boys who were wounded in the face. As the policemen arrived at the school, the gunman had already left the classroom and was preparing to proceed to the third floor where students and teachers had barricaded themselves inside the remaining classrooms.

Rio de Janeiro military policeman Third Sergeant Márcio Alexandre Alves shot the gunman in the leg and in the stomach. Alves shot the gunman; he fell down a staircase and then committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.

Perpetrator

Wellington Menezes de Oliveira was identified as a 23-year-old former pupil of the school. Police confirmed they had a letter stating the perpetrator’s intention to commit suicide.

Texts found at Oliveira’s home suggested he was obsessed with terrorist acts and Islam which he described as the most correct religion. A neighbor said Oliveira had turned to Islam two years beforehand.

In his letters, Oliveira stated that he attended the mosque in downtown Rio and that he would study the Qur'an for four hours daily. He also described his association with "Abdul", who came from overseas and who boasted about having taken part in the September 11 attacks. Oliveira indicated his desire to move to a Muslim majority country, either Egypt or Malaysia. However, Jehovah's Witnesses and Islam leaders in Rio denied Oliveira's claims.

Oliveira attended Tasso da Silveira Municipal School from 1999 to 2002. Former schoolmates described him as a strange, very reserved person constantly harassed by others. He was called "Sherman" (an allusion to a character from American Pie) and "suingue" (swing) because he had a limp leg, and he was thrown into a garbage bin.

A video Oliveira recorded two days prior to the shooting included the following statement:

"The struggle for which many brothers died in the past, and for which I will die, is not solely because of what is known as bullying. Our fight is against cruel people, cowards, who take advantage of the kindness, the weakness of people unable to defend themselves." (A luta pela qual muitos irmãos no passado morreram, e eu morrerei, não é exclusivamente pelo que é conhecido como bullying. A nossa luta é contra pessoas cruéis, covardes, que se aproveitam da bondade, da fraqueza de pessoas incapazes de se defenderem.)

Oliveira was adopted. The account also described that he had five syblings but lived alone. His 49-year-old sister Roselaine said that he lived on line and had no friends and that he was strange and very reserved. An ex-classmate in middle school, Bruno Dantas da Costa, told O Globo newspaper in Rio that Wellington avoided contact with his classmates.

Oliveira was fired from his job in a food company in Rio in August 2010 for "lack of productivity", according to his former boss told O Globo.

Letter and religious/ burial instructions

Police said Oliveira left a letter at the scene indicating he wanted to commit suicide. In addition to the suicide intent, the letter contained religious rhetoric about impurity and asked for a priest to bless his grave so God and Jesus could forgive him. It asked to be buried near his mother.

Perpetrator's letter (verbatim)

First of all you should know that the impure ones shall not touch me without gloves, only the chaste ones or those who lost their chastity after wedlock and were not involved in adultery shall touch me without gloves, in other words, no fornicator or adulterer shall have direct contact with me, nor should anything that is impure touch my blood, no impure person shall have contact with a virgin without their permission, those who prepare my burial shall remove all my garments, bathe me, dry me and drape me completely undressed in a white sheet which is in this building, in a bag that I have left in the primary room of the first floor, after wrapping me in this sheet they shall put me in my coffin. If possible, I want to be buried alongside the grave where my mother lies. My mother is called Dicéa Menezes de Oliveira and she is buried in Murundu cemetery. I need a visit from a faithful follower of the Lord to my grave at least once, I need him to pray in front of my grave asking for God's forgiveness for what I have done imploring that Jesus on his return wake me from the sleep of death for eternal life. I have left a house in Sepetiba of which none of my family members need, there are poor institutions, financed by generous people who take care of abandoned animals, I want this space where I spent my last months to be donated to one of these institutions, because animals are very unappreciated beings and need much more protection and affection than human beings who have the advantage of being able to communicate, work to feed themselves, therefore, those who take my house, I please ask to have good sense and fulfill my request, by fulfilling my request, you will fulfill the will of the parents who wished to pass this estate onto me and everybody knows this, if you do not fulfill my request, automatically you will be disrespecting the will of my parents, which will prove that you have no consideration for them, I believe that you all have respect for our parents, prove this by doing what I asked. — Wellington Menezes de Oliveira

Victims

The victims were 12 children aged between 10 and 13 years old.

Eleven of the twelve students were buried the day after the shooting, while the twelfth child's body was cremated two days after the shooting.

A list of victims was released by police in Rio de Janeiro.

In one account, a 12th student, a 13 year old boy, died at the Adão Pereira Nunes hospital after spending the day in critical condition.

In another account, of the 11 killed, 10 were girls.

Six injured children required further treatment, two of them in critical condition.

Witness and survivor accounts

A survivor’s account said that Oliveira selectively shot girls while shooting boys only to immobilize them.

Lucia Regina da Silva, a mother of a fifth grader who survived the attack, said her daughter told her that older students had covered the bodies of younger students for protection when they heard the gunfire across the hall. Lucia Regina da Silva said:

"She heard the children screaming in the other classrooms, but they couldn’t leave their room because the teachers had locked the doors,” she said.

A relative of an injured person, Francisco André, 28, cousin of one of the injured, said he was told by his relative that Oliveira entered the classroom and told all the students to raise their hands and close their eyes as he begins a lecture. Francisco André said:

“What I don’t understand is how does the school let in a guy that age into the building and not check him out first?”

Paulo Gomes, 47, said that his wife, a teacher at the school, phoned him at 08:15 to tell him there was a gunman in the school. He said:

“he left home immediately for the school and by the time I arrived, the police were already there. When I got there I saw total chaos. There was a lot of blood and when I got closer I saw a student around 15 years old that was shot in the head; I was in shock. My wife is okay, but some of her students were killed,” he told O Globo.

Other named individuals and relationships

Martha Rocha was named as Rio civil police chief and said that Menezes did not have a criminal track record.

Eduardo Paes was named as Mayor of Rio de Janeiro and addressed the press at the site of the shooting a few hours later.

Sérgio Cabral was named as State Governor and described the sergeant, teachers and children from the elementary school, who were able to call policemen who were nearby, as "heroes". Cabral said:

"Without them, the tragedy would have been much worse"

Dilma Rousseff was named as Brazil’s President; she declared three days of national mourning, shed tears during her speech, and requested a moment of silence.

Jose Sarney was named as president of the Senate and a former President of the Brazil, and called the incident an act of terrorism.

Michel Temer was named as Brazilian vice president; he condecorated three policemen for act of bravery on April 12, 2011.

The three policemen referenced for promotion and recognition were: Third Sergeant Márcio Alexandre Alves, Corporals Denilson Francisco de Paula, and Ednei Feliciano da Silva.

Orani João Tempesta was named as archbishop of Rio de Janeiro and received a letter from Pope Benedict XVI.

Pope Benedict XVI was named in connection with a letter that stated he prayed for the quick recovery of the wounded and asked all people of the city to "help build a society with no violence and respect to each other, especially for the weak and oppressed".

Bruno Dantas da Costa was named as an ex-classmate who said Wellington avoided contact with his classmates.

Edmar Peixoto was named as Vice Mayor of Realengo, and was described as having informed the police that Menezes left a strange note at the school saying that he was dying of AIDS. The note was described as not being released to the press until later in the evening.

Roselaine was named as Wellington’s 49-year-old sister.

Dicéa Menezes de Oliveira was named as Oliveira’s mother.

Aftermath

The incident sparked nation-wide discussions about how safe Brazilian schools were, and the government promised to advance the disarmament program lasting from May 6, 2011 until the end of the year.

On April 9, 2011, Oliveira’s house was subject of pixação with writings saying "Murderer" and "Coward". Two days later, a group of locals and former students repainted the house stating that people "should not continue the harm that he has caused".

Hundreds of residents and students from other schools gathered outside the school to remember the ones who died, with posters and flowers left in front of the school.

On April 10, a group of protesters hung blood-stained Brazilian flags on Copacabana beach in honor of the children who died in the shooting.

At the end of a concert in São Paulo, Bono Vox, from Irish band U2, asked almost 80 thousand people to remember the children who died in Realengo while their names scrolled up on a screen.

The three policemen who responded to the shooting were condecorated for act of bravery by Michel Temer on April 12, 2011. Third Sergeant Márcio Alexandre Alves was promoted to Second Sergeant; Corporals Denilson Francisco de Paula and Ednei Feliciano da Silva were promoted to Third Sergeant.

Authorities said the Brazilian public opinion was shocked because it was the first time such an incident occurred in the country.

International response included mention of students from Columbine, Colorado, made a poster stating their feelings about the tragedy, and the poster would be sent to the Brazilian elementary school.

Hospital response / casualties (as described)

Rio victims were brought to Albert Schweitzer hospital in Rio. The account also described dozens of panic stricken parents and family members crowded around in tears with students and medical staff.

At least 18 other people, mostly students, were wounded in the shooting spree, and at least four were in grave condition, according to a health official.

Burial

Eleven of the twelve children killed were buried the day after the shooting in the Brazilian tradition of holding services within a day of a person's death.

The twelfth child's body was cremated two days after the shooting.

Oliveira’s body was buried in a potter's field at the Caju Cemetery two weeks after his death. The account said none of his relatives reclaimed his body.

Evidence regarding motive (as described)

Police stressed that they found no concrete evidence of a religious or political motive for the attack. A different account said it was not clear whether the gunman shot himself or was killed by police, and another described the police as saying the letter did not give a clear motive for the shooting.