Man Killed by Sniper in Rio After Hijacking Bus on Rio-Niteroi Bridge

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – After three hours of a standoff on the bridge that connects the city of Niteroi to Rio de Janeiro, a hijacker, who was holding more than thirty people hostage on an inter-city bus, was shot by a police sniper. The hostages have been released unharmed, and the hijacker died on his way to the hospital, according to police.

According to police, the hijacker had a knife, a Taser gun, and a container full of flammable material. The hijacker also apparently had a pistol that police later confirmed to be a toy gun.

Over thirty commuters were inside the bus during the hijack, which occurred a little after 6 AM on Tuesday, August 20th. Most passengers were on their daily commute to work.

Hans Moreno was one of the passengers on the bus. “The man announced that the bus was being hijacked, but he did not ask for our belongings, just to close the window drapes. He seemed very calm,” Moreno said in a telephone interview with TV’s Globonews.

“He kept saying that he did not want to hurt us. He pointed the gun around but did not threaten anyone specifically,” he said.

He destroyed the cameras on the bus and sprayed the front window with spray-paint.

According to Moreno the bus was full. “All seats were taken, but there were no people traveling standing up.”

One of the passengers was asked to tie the other passengers’ hands with plastic ties.

Moreno said the hijacker joked a few times with passengers stating that they would have great stories to tell family and friends after the ordeal was over.

He talked through two-way-radio. During the hijacking, Moreno said he heard the hijacker ask police negotiators for R$30,000 to let the passengers go.

“He never said why he was doing this, but he did say his name was William,” said Moreno. Police have now identified the dead hijacker as Willian Augusto da Silva, age 20.

Security analysts said that several times during the hijack, the man would step out alone from the vehicle, making him vulnerable to snipers. He was shot one of these times.

A little after 9 AM shots were fired as the hijacker was once again boarding the bus, and police quickly moved in. Before being shot, the hijacker had allowed six people to leave the bus.

The bus was on its regular route from São Gonçalo to the city of Rio de Janeiro. The hijacker apparently got on at one of the last stops in Niteroi and told the bus driver to stop while the vehicle was driving through the Rio-Niteroi bridge.

Snipers have frequently been used during the administration of Rio’s governor, Wilson Witzel.

“I have been following, since early this morning, the hijacking of the bus on the Rio-Niterói bridge. I am in direct contact with the Military Police Command, who are working to close the case to the best of their ability. The absolute priority is the protection of the hostages,” said Witzel on social media. Governor Witzel arrived by helicopter, forty minutes after the end of the hijack, and was filmed shaking hands and hugging police officers involved in the action.

The governor has been criticized because there have been several people killed by security forces in the last few weeks who were not involved in criminal activities, including six youths. Many favela residents have complained that during the last few months helicopters have been flying over the communities with snipers firing at the residents below.

Speaking to journalists before the end of Tuesday’s hijack, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said he approved the use of snipers. Bolsonaro recalled the events of another bus hijacking in Rio in June of 2000.

“They (the commanding officers) said that they could do anything except shoot,” he said of the hijacking of the Line #147 bus in the wealthy neighborhood of Jardim Botanico in Rio de Janeiro. “What happened? A hostage was killed,” Bolsonaro said.