Brazil says goodbye to shooting victims

SUZANO, Brazil — Classmates, friends and relatives of the victims of a mass school shooting hugged, cried and prayed on Thursday as several thousand attended a wake in this devastated Sao Paulo suburb while authorities worked to uncover what drove two former students to attack with a gun, crossbows and axes.

Before 17-yea rold Guilherme Taucci Monteiro and 25-yearold Henrique de Castro launched the school assault Wednesday, killing seven, police said they shot and killed a man who owned a used-car dealership nearby.

What happened next at the K-12 school, partially caught on surveillance camera footage at the school's entrance and widely distributed in Brazil, was stomach-churning.

It showed Monteiro entering the building and shooting several people in the head as they tried to run away. De Castro followed him, first striking wounded people with an ax and then swinging it wildly while scores of students ran past him. De Castro then armed his bow and walked further into the school.

The dead included five students, a teacher and a school administrator. Nine others were wounded in the attack, including seven still hospitalized Thursday.

“I couldn't sleep. I have two children in school and they are about the age of the victims,” said Wanda Augusta, a 46-year-old homemaker attending the wake.

“If only we could have identified the difficulties of these boys” before the attack, said Rossieli Soares, the state education secretary, who attended the wake at a volleyball arena. “This is a problem in our society.”