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A shooting was reported Saturday in the favela of Morro da Barao, in west Rio de Janeiro, where more than 70 officers from the military police have been deployed to search for and apprehend those responsible for a brutal gang rape of a 16-year-old teenage girl on Tuesday, a case that has caused global outrage.
The case is being led by the agency specializing in cyber crimes since the attackers shared pictures and videos of the crime on their social networks.
Brazilian authorities said they have already identified four of the 33 men who took part in the gang rape, among them the alleged victim's 19-year-old boyfriend, who according to the victim’s statement was the one who drugged her before committing the brutal crime while the the girl was unconscious.
The victim says she woke up naked and bleeding the next day and when she went to a hospital she found out what had happened after watching the videos and pictures of her rapists bragging and joking about their actions.
A suspect was arrested on Friday and was taken to a police station, where it was hoped the man would help them identify others involved in the crime. However, they released him Saturday due to lack of evidence.
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The videos of the gang rape were first spotted on Tuesday and they went viral before being removed, with thousands of likes and comments that inflamed the anger of women's groups and civil society in general who took to the streets of Rio on Friday and protested in front of the Legislative Assembly, demanding the implementation of laws to curb violence against women.
Last year the President Dilma Rousseff highlighted the serious problem and noted that 15 women were killed per day in Brazil simply “for a question of gender.” However, the majority right-wing Congress only passed a legislation sharply increasing punishments for violence against women.
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