The 13-year-old teenager who stabbed a teacher to death and injured five people at a school in Vila Sônia, in the western region of São Paulo, tried to buy a firearm over the internet to use in the attack, but failed. According to the police, he admitted this in a statement to police chief Marcus Vinicius Reis, head of the 34th Police Department (Vila Sônia), where the case is being investigated. He also said that he practiced a knife attack on a pillow using a pair of scissors at home.
"He actually tried to acquire that firearm, did some research via the internet, but was unable to actually acquire or have a firearm available, which would certainly have caused much greater lethality," said Reis. The teenage boy reported being bullied at three different schools. In addition to the Thomazia Montoro state school, where the attack took place, and at José Roberto Pacheco in Taboão da Serra (Grande SP), according to the police, the young man also studied at the Rodrigues Alves state school, on Avenida Paulista, in the central region of São Paulo.
In a note to his family, he said that he had been planning the attack for two years, since he was 11. In addition to the bullying, he spoke of sadness and hatred accumulated over the years, which he kept hidden from his family.
Translated by Cassy Dias