During a press conference on Monday afternoon (17), the Republican candidate for governor of São Paulo state Tarcisio de Freitas ruled out that the campaign shooting was an attack. The candidate was attending a social program in Paraisopolis on Monday morning, in the capital São Paulo, when the shooting started.

According to Agência Brasil, Tarcisio stated that he assessed what happened as “intimidation” by organized crime to demarcate the territory.

Candidate rules out attack as motive for shooting and speaks of organized crime intimidation – Photo: Marcello Casal Jr. Agência Brasil/Disclosure/ND

“In my opinion, it was an act of intimidation. It was a clear signal to organized crime that you were not welcome here. We don’t want you to be here. For me, this is a territorial issue. It has nothing to do with the political issue, it has nothing to do with the election issue. But this is a territorial issue,” the candidate said.

The candidate was participating in the opening ceremony of the first University Pole in Paraisopolis, a partnership between the Centro Universitário Ítalo-Brasileiro and Casa Belezinha Brasil, in the morning when the shooting started.

When he was on the third floor of the building, Tarcisio said he heard the queue around 11:40. A few minutes later, he said, more shots rang out.

Police are investigating all options

Despite the “rejection” made by Tarcisio, São Paulo Public Security (SSP-SP) Secretary Joao Camilo Pires told Agência Brasil this Monday (17) that the police are investigating all hypotheses about the shooting.

“It is premature to say so yet,” he said. “However, with the data that we have, I do not believe that this fact contradicts what the candidate himself commented. [de ter sido um atentado]. Maybe noise with police presence [para proteger o candidato]maybe intimidation, but we are going to dig deeper,” he said.

“Due to the presence of the police, there was indeed noise in the area, so the shooting was carried out approximately 50-100 meters from where the candidate’s team was located. Of course, this scares, scares everyone, and the measures that needed to be taken were the right ones, namely the termination of the event and the withdrawal of the team to maintain general security, ”he said.