THE HUNT FOR LÁZARO
❗️ We're not sure we're going to have any more updates, but if we do, we'll repost it all.
The police of the State of #Goias (with the help of the federal police) caught a guy named #LazaroBarbosa. Lázaro was 32 and was running away after killing an entire family. Due to his known skills for survival in the wilderness, the hunt lasted incredible 20 days. He was caught before yesterday, June 28th. At some point, more than 400 police officers were allegedly involved in the operation to catch him.
This family murder and this long hunt is a direct result of the broken judicial system in Brazil. Lázaro's first two crimes were murders and they happened back in 2007. Since then and before the murder of the family, he committed over ten more crimes, including robbery, illegal carry, and rape. In 2013, he was deemed an irreversible psychopath. He accumulated more than 30 crimes, including 1 rape and 7 murders. 11 others (among the 30 but other than the 8 just mentioned) were life threatening crimes.
Lázaro grew up working in farming and he learned how to survive in the wilderness. He gave an example of this after his first two serious crimes, which were two murders He fled into the wilderness and was able to survive there for 15 days.
TIMELINE OF EVENTS SINCE THE MURDER OF CEILÂNDIA'S FAMILY: – JUNE SIXTH: Lázaro commits a mass murder in a rural area of #Ceilandia, #DistritoFederal, known as #JoaodeSantoCristo. He forces his way into a country house, kills a 48-year-old father and his 21 and 14-year-old sons. Then he takes the wife hostage. He cuts her hair, rapes her, and kills her. The body is found naked in a ditch. – JUNE EIGHTH: Police start searching for Lázaro. – JUNE NINTH: Lázaro calls his mother for the last time. He hangs up when his mother tells him her phone is tapped, but before hanging up he says, “IT'S VERY HARD. I CAN'T THINK STRAIGHT. I CAN'T LIVE ANYMORE. MY LIFE IS OVER.” – JUNE TENTH: Lázaro invades another country house where he demands he is cooked food. He watches TV, smokes a joint, and demands that the family smokes with him. He leaves 4 hours later. – JUNE THIRTEENTH: He steals a car from a farm (or country house, not clear), takes the highway, but there is a line of cars passing through a roadblock. He leaves the car and goes into the wilderness. Police find a gun and ammunition in the car. At this point, there are allegedly more than 200 officers in his pursuit. A security from a country house near there calls the police and says he thinks Lázaro could pass by anytime soon and that the police could stand by there, but before police arrive, Lázaro shows up. The security warns him not to enter, another guy who was with the securiity says he was going to call police, but then Lázaro opens fire. The security fires back. Before fleeing, Lázaro allegedly says, “DAMN! YOU HIT ME, BUT I'LL KILL YOU.” The security responds by saying he'll kill him if he steps into the property. He says Lázaro is limping, but he is still able to run away. – JUNE FOURTEENTH: Lázaro exchanges shots with a country house security and is allegedly hit, but if he really was (and this would mean this was not the first hit he takes), it doesn't keep him from fleeing. Some police officers eventually catch up with him and shots are fired. A police officer is grazed by a bullet in the face. Police believe Lázaro was hit and could be arrested soon, but this information is not confirmed and Lázaro is anything but near being arrested. – JUNE SEVENTEENTH: Allegedly, 400 police officers are on his pursuit. Lázaro is found hiding himself in a country house by some officers, shots are exchanged, Lázaro gets shot, is seen limping, but still flees. This would be a third hit he takes. TBB thinks that, if every account of him being hit is true, he's quite lucky. – JUNE TWENTY-SECOND: Lázaro is able to steal bread and oil from a country house. He covers some distance along a shallow river to avoid his odor from being picked up by police dogs. Later in the afternoon, a car is found burned next to a highway. Police are investigating if it was used by Lázaro. At about 9pm, the security of a country house (TBB doesn't know if this security is a different one) notices someone forcing the door knob. He shoots through the door and the person on the other side shoots back. The shooting from outside stops. The security can hear the footsteps of someone running away. He opens the door and tries to spot the intruder, but sees no one. Police are informed and head to the country house. – JUNE TWENTY-THIRD: A man is mistaken with Lázaro and is beaten up. A country house security says he and Lázaro allegedly exchanged shots. A phone app especifically designed to help sort out tip calls and identify their location starts operating. Police ask citizens to avoid prank calls and to avoid calling to give tips on how the police should handle the case. They urge people to give only tips that can help track down Lázaro. The app only operates within a range of 60 miles in order to avoid calls away from the region Lázaro is believed to be. – JUNE TWENTY-FOURTH: The number of police officers involved in the pursuit is said to be less than 300. Lázaro's mother and wife are, along with two lawyers, negotiating the terms of a surrender so that Lázaro can be assured he won't be hurt. There are roadblocks stopping every single vehicle in several roads, but it is intensified on the BR-070 between the city of #CocalzinhodeGoias and the border with #DistritoFederal. – JUNE TWENTY-FIFTH: Police see from a helicopter a man following another one out of a country house and one of them entering the woods. Police ask the owner of this country house to have access to his land but they are denied, which raises a suspicion. They happen to be Lázaro's ex-boss and the latter's country house security. One woman tells police she saw someone walking near the house of those arrested and police strongly believe to be Lázaro, so they decide to block all roads nearby and start surrounding the area. They also arrest that boss and his security under suspicion of deliberately helping Lázaro with food and shelter. One of the shotguns used by Lárazo at some point is found with one of the two. The two along with Lázaro are believed to be partners in crime, and that they and others might be involved in other crimes. They seem to have helped Lázaro for 5 days. At around 8pm (Brazilian time), Lázaro enters a bakery, doesn't say anything, looks at some bags of chips, grabs a couple ones, looks at them as if thinking if that's what he wants. He avoids looking straight or at people's face. The owner, a lady, and another woman suspect of his behavior and think the guy looks like Lázaro. They can't help themselves but get nervous. One goes into a room to call police. Lázaro notices the ladies are ansty and thinks they recognize him. He drops everything and leaves the place in a hurry. This bakery is near a highway and only about 900 feet from where a group of police officers, part of the operation, are stationed. – JUNE TWENTY-SIXTH: A different country house security notices that someone had broken into the house when he gets there for work, but he and the house owner say nothing was stolen. The owner along with his wife go to the police to tell the story and a police team heads to their country house. – JUNE TWENTY-SEVENTH: Between 7 and 8pm, Lázaro tries to break into his ex-mother-in-law's home, but before he succeeds, he realizes police is already on his way following an anonymous tip, so he gives up and flees. During this fleeing, he passes by other homes and some people recognize him. They recognize him not only because of his exposure on the media, but because he's known by many residents since it's a region that was part of his everyday life. Police eventually catch up, but Lázaro threatens to shoot them in the face and flees into the wilderness. – JUNE TWENTY-EIGHTH: Early morning, still dark, and in an area near where his ex-mother-in-law lives, police get closer to Lázaro, Lázaro again threatens to shoot them at their faces. At some moment, there is a shooting, but neither the officers nor Lázaro are hit. The officers stand down, wait for backup and wait for the sun to come up. This further debilitates Lázaro physically and mentally, since he hadn't eaten and drunk and he had barely slept since his ex-boss and this one's security were arrested and could no longer provide him with food and shelter. After the sun is out, one of the helicopters is flying lower, indicating they had Lázaro's tail. Most of the police who are engaged in the hunt in the wilderness are the military since they have more experience in this environment, while the civil police are backing them up in the surroundings, like roads and properties. Police finally engage in a second attempt to catch him, which prompted Lázaro to threaten shooting at them, and he does it. Given Lázaro's skills, danger, and determination to die fighting (which he had already expressed), police don't want to take chances, and they fire more than 120 shots back at him. No police officer is injured during the shooting, but Lázaro was hit dozens of times, dying on spot.
❗️❗️ TBB notes that this account report has several gaps (even days are missing), and that some pieces of information might need further confirmation, but hopes it could have given you some idea of this case.