The First School Shooting in Brazil
Could bullying have been the only motivation behind the first school attack in Brazil?
From 2011 to 2021, Brazil recorded at least four massacres in schools and daycare centers. Nevertheless, the first school shooting reported in Brazil happened back in 2003, in a town with less than 10k inhabitants. This article contains information extracted from the book Violência na escola: o desafio de enfrentar o bullying e reconstruir a paz (Violence at school: the challenge of tackling bullying and rebuilding peace) by Maria Sâmara Azevedo and newspaper articles.
Edimar Aparecido Freitas was born on December 5, 1984 to Tereza and Nelson Freitas. He was an only child and resided with his parents in the small town of Taiúva, in the state of São Paulo, where they led a monotonous life working on their small farm. His parents were humble and unschooled, and although they couldn’t give their son a life of luxury, Edimar was never deprived of education and job opportunities in his town.
Throughout his childhood, Edimar wasn’t a well-behaved child. He was unruly and would backtalk to his mother. “People would say that it was because he was my only son, he was spoiled,” recalled Tereza. He preferred not to walk next to his mother on the sidewalk and complained about his parents’ age, saying they got married too late.
As Edimar grew older, he began to isolate himself. He would prevent his parents from entering his room and would barely speak to them. “He shut himself off so much that if I met him on the street, he wouldn’t look me in the face,” remembered his mother. He would spend time alone in his room reading magazines and books about Adolf Hitler, for whom he nurtured a deep admiration. When questioned by his father about what he did so much in his room, Edimar lowered his head and chose silence.
According to Alexandre Belesso, one of his friends, sometimes they fired at cans with an air shotgun in the back of Edimar’s house.
Edimar was described as “respected” and “polite” by professors and acquaintances. As a teenager, he was an average student at the Coronel Benedito Ortiz school, the only public high school in Taiúva at that time. He didn’t drink alcohol or smoke, and wouldn’t cause trouble at school. One thing he was certain of: he didn’t want to work on the farm like his parents. That being said, he started working first in a greengrocery and eventually in a repair shop.
With his money, Edimar bought a desk with drawers that could be locked. Tereza didn’t understand his purchase as he didn’t have a computer to put on top. Edimar said that he bought it because he thought it was cheap. His mother, however, remained curious.
When Tereza eventually tried to look at the desk closely without her son being around, she was surprised by a nervous Edimar. He had just come home when he found his mother in his room ─ a place she wasn’t allowed to enter. He exclaimed “Mom, this way you’re going to kill me. Why did you open the door?” as if he feared she might have seen something wrong.
Edimar had to endure harassment from an early age. According to Tereza, the jokes started in pre-school. He was nicknamed “fat,” “pig” and “elephant” by his friends due to his weight, besides “faggot” and “virgin” in high school. His friends didn’t take him seriously when he talked about going on a rampage.
According to Alexandre Belesso, Edimar’s friend, he threatened to kill everyone if they sang “happy birthday to you” on December 5th, Edimar’s birthday. That day, many students skipped classes.
“The class played with him, he played with the class,” stated professor Francisco Berci.
During adolescence, Edimar was determined to lose weight. He started drinking vinegar mixed with water every morning and quickly lost 30kg. The jokes, however, didn’t cease to exist. Someone discovered his diet and spread it at school, leading people to mock Edimar by calling him “Big vinegar.”
In the last year of high school, Edimar asked to switch shifts at school. He said he wanted to look for a new job during the day, so studying at night would be better. For Tereza, he actually wanted to stay away from the bullies.
In late 2002, on graduation day, Edimar was booed when walking across the stage to get his diploma. When he finally graduated, Edimar and three friends contacted the biology teacher João Francisco and asked for help to take a professional course in a neighboring city. He seemed to be looking forward to pursuing a career.
In January, Coronel Benedito Ortiz would give students extra help classes. At 18, Edimar finally would never have to step into that place again. However, he was determined to do so.
He had started planning an attack about two months earlier and purchased a .38-caliber revolver and bullets at a store in the neighboring town of Jaboticabal.
At 11 a.m. on January 27, 2003, Edimar showered, wore his best clothes, and said goodbye to his mother. When questioned about where he would go so well-dressed, Edimar answered he would go to his grandmother’s house. He then got a bag, in which was the revolver and a knife, and left.
Around 2:40 p.m., Edimar jumped over the school wall and began to open fire. Without saying a word, he opened fire against 50 people who were in the schoolyard and reportedly tried to hold a teacher hostage. It is believed that he had specific targets in mind. “He walked past some people and didn’t shoot them,” stated professor Francisco Berci.
The school coordinator, Isabel Cristina, was upstairs when she heard three gunshots coming from the schoolyard. At first, she thought it was an explosive device. She then walked down the stairs and faced Edimar, who she knew shouldn’t be there.
Isabel didn’t realize he was reloading the revolver, let alone assumed he had something to do with the sounds she had just heard. She asked him what he was doing there, and an enraged Edimar told Isabel to go back to class. Instead, she ran out of the school.
The vice-principal, Maria de Lurdes, stuck together with some students and ran to the entrance while trying to escape the shots. She was grazed by a bullet on the forehead and legs. Student Eliel Câmara was shot in the chest.
Pedro Russo Júnior, who had studied with the perpetrator in elementary school, was near the drinking fountain when Edimar came walking out of the men’s bathroom and fired at Pedro. He was shot in the spine and legs and became a paraplegic.
Jefferson de Souza, the perpetrator’s friend, was shot in the hands while trying to protect his face from bullets.
Student Jairo Dias was shot four times, in the arms and in the face. He played dead to escape more shots and survived.
Edimar proceeded to walk towards the caretaker’s residence at the back of the school, where Maria do Carmo was taking care of her injured husband, Antonio Augustinho, and a student.
Edimar aimed the revolver at Maria do Carmo but hesitated when she begged not to be killed. He then pointed the gun at the side of his head and pulled the trigger in front of her.
Seven people were injured, but only Edimar died. He fired at least 14 times and 89 ammunition were found in his pockets.
Edimar didn’t express his motivation to his victims, let alone to his parents. It led people to assume the attack was a response to the bullying he had suffered throughout the years.
It was speculated that Edimar had written a note in which he mentioned the names of his targets but the note was never found.
It was also speculated that Edimar might have recorded his motivation in a cassette tape in his grandmother’s house when he closed the door and talked to himself. Again, it was never found. Tereza believes that her son may have burned the tape or it was taken by the police during a search.
During a search in Edimar’s room, the police found a .22-caliber revolver and the air shotgun. In his wardrobe, Tereza found condoms. She found herself thinking he attacked girls or was in a process of self-assertion due to the nicknames he heard at school.
We may never discover Edimar’s deepest feelings and motivation, but the idea of revenge for being bullied is accepted and this case resurfaces with every new school shooting in the country.
