The third wave of attacks against civilian and military targets attributed to the First Command of the Capital, a prison gang from São Paulo state in the southeast of Brazil, continued Monday night and in the early morning hours today.
Policemen killed a third suspect since the assaults started Sunday night. Another 14 were arrested and charged with taking part in the violence.
On Monday, São Paulo’s military police chief, Elizeu Eclair Teixeira Borges. announced that the number of attacks throughout the state of São Paulo had already reached 78. They included torched buses, public buildings sprayed by bullets or hit by bombs and also police cars and gas stations set ablaze.
The criminals waited the dark of the night to restart their attacks. A group of men riding a car shot against a Military Police station in São Caetano do Sul, a city in the Greater São Paulo, around 8 pm.
They fled, burned the car they were in and disappeared. In Guarulhos and Suzano, at least three vehicles were set ablaze. In Ferraz de Vasconcelos, another group shot against a police station and a bakery.
Another police station was hit by bullets in Sorocaba, in the interior of the state. Nobody was caught. In Campinas, also in the interior, another police station was hit and again nobody was arrested.
In Cotia, in the Greater São Paulo, however, an exchange of fire between criminals and the police after the assailants had attacked a bank branch ended up with the death of one of the suspects and the arrest of two others.
According to the Police, the trio threw a homemade bomb against a branch of the federal savings bank Caixa Econômica around 10 pm. They were chased and shot at. One of the suspects who was badly hurt was taken to an emergency room but died there. His two colleagues were booked and put in jail.