Maracanã school shooting

The Maracanã school shooting was a school shooting that took place in the city of Rio de Janeiro on the afternoon of November 28, 2025. A 47-year-old man broke into a school and shot and killed two employees before killing himself with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

This is the second school shooting with multiple deaths to occur in Rio de Janeiro, with the previous one occurring in 2011, when Wellington Menezes de Oliveira invaded a municipal school and shot and killed 12 people before killing himself.

At around 3:50 p.m. (UTC−3), former employee João Antônio Miranda Tello Ramos Gonçalves, 47, went to the Celso Suckow da Fonseca Federal Center for Technological Education (Cefet).^[1] Armed with a Glock .380 pistol, Antônio broke into one of the administration offices and shot an administrative technician twice.^[2] After shooting her, he went to a second room, where he fired two more shots, hitting a psychologist, before going to a third room, where he shot himself in the head.^[3]

During the attack, students and staff in the classrooms barricaded themselves in to prevent the shooter from entering. One of the school's teachers continued teaching as normal while the attack was taking place.^[4] After the shooter killed himself, they left the rooms.^[5]

Police officers and firefighters who arrived at the scene found the two wounded victims and rushed them to the hospital. Later, the shooter was found dead.^[6][7]

• Allane de Souza Pedrotti Matos, 41, an administrative technician, was shot in the back of the head and shoulder. She was rescued but died before arriving at the hospital. She had studied at many universities, including the University of Copenhagen.^[8]

• Layse Costa Pinheiro, 40, a psychologist at the institution, was shot in the head and chest. She was rescued and taken to the hospital but died two hours after the attack.^[9]

• The shooter, João Antônio Miranda Tello Ramos Gonçalves, 47, shot himself in the head. He died at the scene.^[10]

João Antônio Miranda Tello Ramos Gonçalveswas later identified as the shooter. He already had mental health issues and had confronted colleagues for being transferred to a different department when he returned to the institution after being on medical leave.^[11]

He had arrived at the school in 2019 and had been dismissed in 2020.^[12] He had already threatened to kill his colleagues and then commit suicide.^[13]

Antônio was uncomfortable with the two women being his superiors; he had a history of mental health issues and, upon returning to the institution, was transferred to a different department, which led to a confrontation and his subsequent transfer to the pedagogy department. An employee of the institution stated that Antônio did not accept dissenting opinions and persecuted his own colleagues. His hatred extended to two female employees of the institution, and Antônio had already told a witness that his brother had killed himself with a gunshot to the head and that he would do the same. He had arrived at the institution in 2019 and was dismissed the following year. Recently, he was suspended for 60 days after being diagnosed with mental health problems. Witnesses stated that Antônio wanted to be in the same department as Souza. Antônio had already filed a lawsuit against the Union for compensation for moral harassment. Three days before the attack, the court closed the case and did not rule on the merits, knowing that the institution has administrative autonomy and the Union should not be a party to the action. He was already separated and had no children. According to colleagues, he was threatening and acted like an authoritarian.

After the attack, the school declared five days of mourning and will remain closed until December 5 of the same year.^[14]

Several politicians spoke out after the attack, including Camilo Santana, Sóstenes Cavalcante, Anielle Franco, Talíria Petrone, and even another university offered their condolences.^[15][16]

Two days after the attack, the two fatal victims were buried in two different cemeteries in the capital. The burial of the shooter was not disclosed.^[17]

• Rio de Janeiro school shooting
• List of school attacks in Brazil