By Isabela Fraga
A news van for a local television broadcaster was shot at in Aratu, an outlying neighborhood of the city of Salvador, Bahia, on Aug. 30, reported the newspaper Folha de São Paulo. No one was hurt.
The news team was from TV Aratu, an affiliate of the broadcaster SBT in Salvador. A reporter, camera operator and driver for the station left to cover a bus fire in the São Bartolomeu neighborhood on Aug. 29, when they were fired upon, reported the website Bahia Notícias.
According to the newspaper Correio Forense, police are investigating the possibility that the shooter did not want the media in the area. Chief of the Fourth Precinct of São Caetano Ana Francisco de Andrade told the website Aratu Online that those responsible were involved in drug trafficking, "the shots were intended to send a message that criminals own that block." The Secretary of Public Security released a statement saying that civil and military police were intensifying the search for the criminals, reported the website Correio 24 Horas.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
