Eight Brazilian police officers have been arrested as part of a probe into the murder of two youths after the fatal shooting was shown on television, the force said.
On Sunday, Globo TV aired a video of footage stemming from security cameras that shows two men on a motorcycle approach three youngsters in the popular Bras neighborhood in Sao Paulo, without taking off their helmets, and shoot two of them.
Images from another camera show that, at the time of the executions, a military police vehicle was parked about 50 meters (yards) from where the victims were.
“We are working to find the third youth who was seen in the images and managed to flee,” Civilian Police Director Elizabeth Sato told local media.
Sao Paulo, with more than 11 million people, is set to host 2014 World Cup events. It has seen a surge in violent crime in recent years, and police frequently have been accused of excessive use of force.
Word of the arrests came as police in Rio de Janeiro searched for a third suspect in the rape of an American student who was violated as her French boyfriend looked on during a horrific six-hour abduction aboard a minibus.
Two male suspects, age 20 and 22, were detained over the weekend, and another is still at large, a police spokesman said.
“She is a US national and he is French; they were studying in Rio,” a French consular source told AFP, in reference to the victims.
The American, 21, and the Frenchman, 23, according to local media, boarded a minibus around midnight Saturday in touristy Copacabana headed to Lapa, a trendy area home to popular bars and dance clubs.
Two men who also boarded the minibus ordered the rest of the passengers to get off and handcuffed their victims.
They then proceeded to beat the young man with a metal bar and rape the young woman as they rode around the city, the special police for aid to tourists (DEAT) said.
The driver of the minibus may also have taken part in the rape, local media reported. Brazil is also hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics and will welcome Pope Francis in July for World Youth Day.
Brazil police arrested in murder probe
