Brazil slum residents burn bus, protest shootings
Apr 19, 2012, 8:01 PM
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Authorities in Rio de Janeiro say dozens of shantytown residents burned a bus and blocked a highway because a 10-year-old girl was grazed by a bullet during a police action that put an armed 18-year-old man in the hospital with three wounds.
The Wednesday evening protest on the Brazilian city’s north side shut down a highway tunnel for about 90 minutes after angry residents set the bus on fire. Police say the driver had minor injuries but no passengers were hurt. Five other busses were stopped, then released undamaged.
Police say officers were pursuing drug dealers in the shantytown when they confronted the armed teenager and wounded him with three bullets.
Officials say a stray shot grazed the young girl’s stomach. She was treated at a hospital and sent home.
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