Officers are investigating if shootings on the western outskirts of Sao Paulo are related. Those who said they had were shot.
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De Moraes said 15 of the victims were shot dead in different areas of Osasco, three were killed in Barueri and one in Itapevi. Seven people were wounded and are hospitalized. Gunmen with face masks arrived by auto, got out of the vehicle and quickly shot their victims.
Not far away, one young man was shot outside an ice cream store, and another was shot by two men riding a motorcycle.
The string of shootings reportedly occurred in Osasco and other neighborhoods in and around São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city and financial capital.
Brazilian Justice Minister José Eduardo Cardozo has offered all necessary support to Sao Paulo state to find the perpetrators, after media reports said the massacre could have been carried out by rogue police in retaliation for recent attacks that left a policemen dead.
Earlier, a spokesman for the security forces had described the wave of killings late Thursday as “unusual”.
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“We want to take measures so that the situation does not worsen over the coming days”, said Lapas. Nevertheless, violence crime remains a serious problem in the city, home to powerful organized criminal gangs and a rampant drug trade. In 2012, the most recent year with comprehensive data, the Brazil government says it registered 47,000 murders although the World Health Organization estimated the figure as 64,000.
