Teenager kills two in Brazil school shooting

A teenager shot dead two staff members and injured two other people, including an 11-year-old girl, in the latest school shooting to rock Brazil.

The incident occurred at Sao Jose Institute, a junior high school in Rio Branco, the capital of northwestern Acre State, on Tuesday, May 5, 2026.

Lieutenant Colonel Felipe Russo of the Acre military police department told reporters that the teenager, who is a student at the school, entered the building and fired several shots in a hallway leading to the principal’s office.

Russo disclosed that the 13-year-old boy surrendered to police after the attack, adding that the teenager’s stepfather, who owns the pistol used in the attack, was also arrested.

Russo said police identified other students who may have cooperated with the attacker.

A receptionist at a hotel adjacent to the school, Eduardo Rodrigues Cavalcante, described scenes of terror, as some students tried to jump over a wall separating the school from the hotel.

“The wall is six meters high, and only one person managed to jump over and take refuge here in the hotel. The other people were left on the school roof trying to escape,” the 19-year-old receptionist told AFP, adding that he heard “gunshots and a lot of screaming.”

Images released by a local media outlet showed a woman being evacuated on a stretcher and scenes of heartbreak outside the school, with people crying and hugging each other.

“In the face of this tragedy, the state expresses its deepest condolences to the families of the victims, the school community of the Sao Jose Institute, and all education professionals affected by this event,” the state government said.

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It added that classes had been suspended for three days at all schools in the state and that psychological support teams had been mobilised to assist students and teachers.

Brazil has seen a sharp increase in attacks on educational institutions in recent years.

In September 2025, two teenagers were shot and killed, and three others were wounded at a school in the northeastern state of Ceara.

In October 2023, a shooting at a school in Sao Paulo left a 17-year-old student dead and three others wounded.

Shortly beforehand, a teenager was killed and three others were wounded in a knife attack as they left a school in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.

In April of the same year, a 25-year-old man entered a daycare centre in the southern state of Santa Catarina and killed four children between the ages of 3 and 7 with an axe.