The embassy said its representatives do not carry guns and denied one of its diplomats was involved in the fight because all consulate officials are “Russian citizens with Russian names”, which contradicts media reports that the diplomatic employee had a Brazilian-sounding name.
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The auto jacker – Leonardo Lopes Batista – was on a motorbike with another man and struck while traffic was stopped waiting for the Olympic torch to pass.
A police officer watches as members of the Chinese women’s track cycling team round the track during a training session inside the Rio Olympic Velodrome in advance of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2016.
Rio police, though, said the Russian vice consul “reacted to an attempted assault”.
The reported Russian diplomat grabbed the assailant’s gun and fatally shot him at point blank range, local media outlet Globo reported.
In the ensuing struggle the weapon went off, killing the mugger and sparking fresh concern about security in the Brazilian city ahead of the opening ceremony for the Rio Games.
The 60-year-old vice-consul, named in some reports as Marcos Cesar Feres Braga, a lawyer, was stuck in traffic at the Avenida das Americas in Barra da Tijuca, when a robber approached the vehicle by motorbike.
They replied that a robber had attacked Brazilian Marcos Cezar Serias Braga near the Outback restaurant in the western part of Rio at 14:50 local time (20:50 Moscow time) on August 4. But RT reported that Mr Tokmakov could not “rule out” that the person in the incident could have told police he was a Russian diplomat, even if that wasn’t the case.
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Little did this thief know, Braga is trained in jiu-jitsu and used those skills to defend himself, his wife, and his daughter.
