Brazilian police kill man who held bus passengers hostage

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brandishing a fake gun, a man on Tuesday took dozens of hostages on a bus in Brazil and threatened to set the vehicle on fire with gasoline before police shot him dead in a four-hour standoff on Latin America’s longest bridge.

All the hostages were freed unharmed on an 8-mile bridge that offers a sweeping view of Rio de Janeiro’s Sugarloaf Mountain and the statue of Christ the Redeemer.

The panoramic setting where the man made his move seemed to reflect a bid for maximum publicity in a spot with virtually no chance of escape.

“He told us he didn’t want our belongings, that he didn’t want to hurt us, that he just wanted to go down in history,” said Hans Moreno, a hostage who had been sitting at the back of the bus.

The bus was coming from Sao Gonçalo, a municipality struggling with poverty and violence.

Police initially said the man had a gun and a knife.

 Later, however, Lt. Col. Maurilio Nunes of the elite police squad that handled the hostage-taking said the gun was fake.

“He had highs and lows,” Nunes said of the hostage taker, who communicated with police.

Professional psychologists were summoned to help police assess the man’s troubled state of mind, according to Nunes.

The man took 37 people hostage on the bus at around 5:30 a.m., as commuter traffic was increasing, police said.

He released two hostages, then another two, and then two more, separately.

Later, he stepped out of the bus, threw an object resembling a bag and was shot by a sniper.

Several shots were heard when police killed the man, and journalists and others in the area ducked to the ground.

The man’s intentions were unclear and he did not make any particular demands, according to police.

The standoff was broadcast live on Brazil’s TV Globo, riveting Brazilians in a nation accustomed to high levels of crime.

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