Friday, September 28, 2007

Brazil Nuts

The police shoot first and answer questions later:

A Spanish tourist and an Italian visitor to the Brazilian city of Fortaleza were wounded by gunshots fired by police, who apparently confused them with robbers trying to make a getaway.

....Spaniard Marcelino Ruiz, 38, suffered the most serious injury - a bullet wound in the spine that could render him paraplegic....

Ruiz had arrived in Fortaleza for a short vacation just minutes before the incident....

....The car in which the couples were riding ... a black Toyota Hilux pickup truck, was apparently mistaken by police for another of the same make and color that had just been used in a robbery.

Police said they ordered the driver of the vehicle to stop and, when that command was not obeyed, began shooting. The tourists, for their part, said they received no such warning before the bullets were fired.

The vehicle carrying the two couples had 18 bullet holes and two of its tires were punctured.

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