Rio 2016: Russian diplomat shoots dead robber who tried to mug him

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Rio 2016: Russian diplomat shoots dead robber who tried to mug him

The vice counsul grappled with an assailant who tried to rob him
in his car but the attacker was killed with his own gun during
the struggle

Jonathan Watts in Rio de Janeiro
Friday 5 August 2016 00.51 BST

A Russian diplomat has shot and killed a Brazilian who attempted to rob him in Rio de Janeiro on the eve of the Olympics, local media reported on Thursday.

The incident occurred on the Avenida das Americas, the main thoroughfare between the Olympic Park and the city centre, at around midday on Thursday just after the torch relay had passed by the street on its way to the Olympic stadium.

According to the Globo newspaper, the vice counsul – named in reports as Marcos Cesar Feres Braga, a Brazilian lawyer who holds the vice-consul post at the Russian consulate – grappled with an assailant who tried to carjack his vehicle, believed to be a BMW X6.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/05/rio-2016-russian-diplomat-shoots-dead-robber-who-tried-to-mug-him

[Old Codger]

1. LOL

Why shoot a dead robber?

[liberal N proud]

3. Because the dead robber tried to mug him.

[Squinch]

2. Zombies! I knew there were zombies in Rio! Herb, didn't I say there were zombies in Rio!

Herb? Are you awake? Tell them how I said there were zombies in Rio!

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Russia says victim of Rio carjacking attempt was not Russian diplomat

Update at same Guardian link:

Officials say man who fought off attacker near Olympic park does not work for embassy amid reports he used fake papers

In a statement to the Guardian the consulate said: “The embassy of Russia in Brazil informs that no representative of the Russian consul general in Rio de Janeiro was involved in the attempted assault that ended with the death of the suspect in Barra da Tijuca this Thursday.

“The officials of the diplomatic mission are Russian citizens with Russian names, which was not the case (in Thursday’s incident).”
...
But Tokmakov said he could not rule out that whoever was involved in the reported incident could have introduced himself as a member of diplomatic staff.

A later report by the Brazilian Folha.uol.com website claimed that the man in the car was a Brazilian with fake identity papers who was passing himself off as a Russian diplomat.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/05/rio-2016-russian-diplomat-shoots-dead-robber-who-tried-to-mug-him

Does seem strange for a diplomat to be wandering about, armed, in a country.