This is the horrifying moment three doctors die in a hail of 33 bullets because a gang of hitmen mistook one of them for a rival paramilitary militia member.
The brutal shooting took place as the medics and a colleague were relaxing at a bar outside a medical conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 5th October.
Shocking CCTV footage shows that as the doctors sit at a table, an SUV stops outside the Nana Kiosk at 1am.
Three gunmen run across the road, firing at the table without mercy.
Other kiosk customers flee in terror as the gunmen, said to be working for a local drugs gang, blast away.
Astonishingly, one doctor, named as Daniel Sonnewend Proenca, survived the bloodbath and is said to be in a stable condition in hospital.
The three dead were named as Marcos de Andrade Corsato, 62, director of the Institute of Orthopedics and Traumatology at the Hospital das Clinicas of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Sao Paulo, Diego Ralf Bomfim, 35, a bone reconstruction specialist, and ankle expert Perseu Ribeiro Almeida, 33.
All four had been attending the 6th International Congress of Minimally Invasive Foot and Ankle Surgery.
They had been staying at the Hotel Windsor, across the road from the shooting.
Local media said that the gang targeted the group because Almeida bore a striking resemblance to Talillon de Alcantara Pereira Barbosa, a local militia leader.
Talillon is the son of Dalmir Pereira Barbosa, also known as “Barriga,” a former sergeant of Rio’s Military Police, who was arrested for militia activities in 2008.
Talillon continued his father’s actions after being expelled from the military police.
He had been on parole since last month, following his arrest for violence in December 2020.
In a grim twist, four men suspected of carrying out the shooting were found dead in two cars just hours later.
Local media named them as 21-year-old Ryan Almeida, Philip Motta Pereira, also known as Lesk, Thiago Lopes da Silva and Pablo dos Reis.
Another prime suspect, Juan Breno Malta Ramos Rodrigues, known as BMW, Lesk’s trusted wingman, is reportedly dead, but his whereabouts are unknown.
Additionally, Bruno Pinto Matias, known as Preto Fosco, and a member of the group, is still missing.
It is understood that the suspects’ bosses decided to execute their assassins to halt a police investigation into the medics’ murder.
The police are investigating Wilton Carlos Rabelho Quintanilha, known as Abelha, one of the drug lords who heads one of the biggest criminal factions in Rio, regarding the execution of the suspects.
Militia groups and factions linked to drug trafficking in the west zone of Rio are at war, with 67 people shot dead over the feud in the region so far this year.
