vault backup: 2026-10-05 22:50:23
This commit is contained in:
parent
844822a683
commit
b7e26a6e42
7 changed files with 216 additions and 109 deletions
|
|
@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ born: 1987-08-27
|
|||
location: "Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil"
|
||||
created: 2026-05-22
|
||||
updated: 2026-05-22
|
||||
summary: "Ciro Daniel Amorim Ferreira is a Brazilian national from Belo Horizonte designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US Treasury and State Department on January 13, 2025, for his role as a Terrorgram Collective channel administrator running at least six Telegram channels promoting accelerationist and white supremacist propaganda."
|
||||
summary: "Ciro Daniel Amorim Ferreira is a Belo Horizonte, Brazil resident designated a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US State Department on January 13, 2025 as a Terrorgram Collective channel administrator."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Ciro Daniel Amorim Ferreira (born August 27, 1987, [[Belo Horizonte]], [[Minas Gerais]], Brazil) is a Brazilian national designated as a [[Specially Designated Global Terrorist]] (SDGT) on January 13, 2025, pursuant to [[Executive Order 13224]], as amended by [[Executive Order 13886]], in connection with his role as an administrator of the [[Terrorgram Collective]]. He was one of three foreign nationals designated simultaneously alongside [[Noah Licul]] (Croatia) and [[Hendrik-Wahl Muller]] (South Africa), the same action that formally designated the Terrorgram Collective itself as a terrorist organization. No Brazilian criminal charges arising from his Terrorgram activity have been publicly confirmed as of mid-2026; the designation is a US Treasury [[Office of Foreign Assets Control]] (OFAC) civil sanction, not a criminal indictment.[^1]
|
||||
|
|
@ -24,13 +24,13 @@ As a result of the designation, all property and interests in property subject t
|
|||
|
||||
### Role in the Terrorgram Collective
|
||||
|
||||
The State Department described Ferreira as an administrator of at least six [[Telegram]] channels, operating under the broader [[Terrorgram Collective]] network of more than 200 Telegram channels that collectively produce and disseminate accelerationist and white supremacist propaganda. The Terrorgram Collective provides guidance and instructional materials on tactics, methods, and targets for attacks, including against critical infrastructure and government officials. Ferreira also maintained an active presence on [[Substack]], [[X (formerly Twitter)]], [[YouTube]], and [[Quora]], with an inactive [[Instagram]] profile, consistent with the Terrorgram ecosystem's use of multiple platforms to preserve redundancy against takedowns.[^1][^3]
|
||||
The State Department described Ferreira as an administrator of at least six [[Telegram]] channels, operating under the broader Terrorgram Collective network of more than 200 Telegram channels that collectively produce and disseminate accelerationist and white supremacist propaganda. The Terrorgram Collective provides guidance and instructional materials on tactics, methods, and targets for attacks, including against critical infrastructure and government officials. Ferreira also maintained an active presence on [[Substack]], [[X (formerly Twitter)]], [[YouTube]], and [[Quora]], with an inactive [[Instagram]] profile, consistent with the Terrorgram ecosystem's use of multiple platforms to preserve redundancy against takedowns.[^1][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
In 2023, Brazilian researcher [[Michele Prado]], founder of the NGO [[Stop Hate Brasil]], submitted a report to Brazil's [[ABIN]] (Agência Brasileira de Inteligência) and the [[Ministry of Justice and Public Security]] that identified Telegram channels linked to Ferreira and other members of the Terrorgram network operating in Brazil. This report represented one of the first formal institutional flaggings of Ferreira's channels to Brazilian authorities.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Prior Criminal Record
|
||||
|
||||
Brazilian state-level records, as reported by Brazilian media following the 2025 designation, indicate that Ferreira has two prior prison records from units in [[Minas Gerais]], for crimes including theft, bodily injury, and false imprisonment. He was imprisoned twice, in 2015 and 2016, receiving court-issued release warrants in both instances. These offenses predated his documented Terrorgram activity and are unrelated to extremism or terrorism charges.[^4]
|
||||
Brazilian state-level records, as reported by Brazilian media following the 2025 designation, indicate that Ferreira has two prior prison records from units in Minas Gerais, for crimes including theft, bodily injury, and false imprisonment. He was imprisoned twice, in 2015 and 2016, receiving court-issued release warrants in both instances. These offenses predated his documented Terrorgram activity and are unrelated to extremism or terrorism charges.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Pre-Extremism Activity
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -38,26 +38,22 @@ According to OSINT sources cited in contemporaneous Brazilian and Latin American
|
|||
|
||||
### Aracruz Attack and Wolf Boy Winter
|
||||
|
||||
The US government did not publicly detail in the January 2025 designation documents whether Ferreira had direct contact with [[Gabriel Rodrigues Castiglioni]], who carried out the [[2022 Aracruz School Shootings]] on November 25, 2022. The State Department's broader Terrorgram designation cited the Aracruz attack as one of the attacks motivated and facilitated by the Terrorgram network, alongside the October 2022 LGBTQ+ bar shooting in [[Bratislava]] and subsequent attacks. The Aracruz connection to Terrorgram was most specifically documented through [[Dallas Humber]]'s prosecution: Humber and [[Matthew Robert Allison]] discussed a Brazilian contact planning a racially motivated school attack approximately one month before the attack, and Humber subsequently created saint cards for Castiglioni.[^5]
|
||||
The State Department's January 2025 designation listed attacks "motivated and facilitated by the group" in [[Bratislava]] (October 2022), a planned attack on New Jersey energy facilities (July 2024) and a knife attack at a mosque in Turkey (August 2024); it does not name the [[2022 Aracruz School Shootings]] carried out by [[Gabriel Rodrigues Castiglioni]] on November 25, 2022.[^1] The government's sentencing memorandum against [[Dallas Humber]] lists "G.C." among people who plotted or committed attacks "inspired and guided by her leadership" and says she made "Saint cards" commemorating the shootings by J.K. and G.C.; Raw Story reported a government filing describing an October 23, 2022 chat in which Humber told [[Matthew Robert Allison]] she had direct messages with a Terrorgram user planning a racially motivated school shooting.[^5][^6]
|
||||
|
||||
A figure using the [[Terrorgram]] pseudonym "[[Wolf Boy Winter]]" posted a video still from Aracruz attack surveillance footage to a major Terrorgram channel approximately two days after the November 25, 2022 attack, and contributed multiple pages to "[[The Hard Reset]]," one of Terrorgram's primary propaganda publications. Michele Prado's 2023 ABIN report identified channels linked to "Wolf Boy Winter." No public source has established the identity of "Wolf Boy Winter" as Ferreira; the two remain separately documented nodes in publicly available records.[^3]
|
||||
The researcher Michele Prado told Raw Story that a Terrorgram user with the pseudonym "[[Wolf Boy Winter]]" contributed pages to "[[The Hard Reset]]," one of Terrorgram's primary propaganda publications, and that her 2023 report to [[Agência Brasileira de Inteligência|ABIN]] identified channels linked to that pseudonym.[^3][^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### International Designations
|
||||
|
||||
The January 13, 2025, action designated Terrorgram as a terrorist organization and simultaneously named three foreign administrators in three different countries, a structure reflecting the network's explicitly transnational character. Noah Licul (Croatia), designated as a "senior member," had been active in the network since at least 2019 under the alias "buntovnik" and is documented in the [[Feuerkrieg Division]] to Terrorgram personnel lineage. Hendrik-Wahl Muller (South Africa) was described as a channel administrator, parallel to Ferreira's role description.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
The Terrorgram Collective had already been designated by the [[United Kingdom]] (April 2024, SI 2024/569), [[Australia]] (F2025L00762), and [[Canada]] (SOR/2025-263) before and following the US action. None of these proscription instruments publicly named Ferreira specifically. The US action of January 13, 2025 was the first government designation to name a Brazilian national as a Terrorgram Collective administrator.[^1][^6]
|
||||
The Terrorgram Collective had already been designated by the [[United Kingdom]] (April 2024, SI 2024/569), [[Australia]] (F2025L00762), and [[Canada]] (SOR/2025-263) before and following the US action. None of these proscription instruments publicly named Ferreira specifically. The US action of January 13, 2025 was the first government designation to name a Brazilian national as a Terrorgram Collective administrator.[^1][^7]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: US Department of State, "Terrorist Designations of The Terrorgram Collective and Three Leaders," January 13, 2025. https://2021-2025.state.gov/office-of-the-spokesperson/releases/2025/01/terrorist-designations-of-the-terrorgram-collective-and-three-leaders/
|
||||
|
||||
[^2]: Federal Register, Vol. 90, No. 10, Document 2025-00756, "Specially Designated Global Terrorist Designations of The Terrorgram Collective, Ciro Daniel Amorim Ferreira, Noah Licul, and Hendrik-Wahl Muller," January 15, 2025. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/15/2025-00756/specially-designated-global-terrorist-designations-of-the-terrorgram-collective-ciro-daniel-amorim; OFAC SDN Entry 52486, sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov/Details.aspx?id=52486
|
||||
|
||||
[^3]: GNET (Global Network on Extremism and Technology). "Terrorgram and Youth Radicalisation: Understanding Brazil's Online Extremist Landscape," November 22, 2024. https://gnet-research.org/2024/11/22/terrorgram-and-youth-radicalisation-understanding-brazils-online-extremist-landscape/
|
||||
|
||||
[^4]: CNN Brasil. "Quem e o brasileiro que integra a lista de terroristas do governo dos EUA," January 2025. https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/nacional/sudeste/mg/quem-e-o-brasileiro-que-integra-a-lista-de-terroristas-dos-eua/; Infobae. "Un brasileno declarado terrorista por EEUU es uno de los lideres de 'Terrorgram'," January 16, 2025. https://www.infobae.com/america/america-latina/2025/01/16/un-brasileno-declarado-terrorista-por-eeuu-es-uno-de-los-lideres-de-terrorgram-la-red-supremacista-de-telegram/
|
||||
|
||||
[^5]: US Department of Justice, OPA. "Leader of Transnational Terrorist Group Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison for Soliciting Hate Crimes and Murder," December 19, 2025. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/leader-transnational-terrorist-group-sentenced-30-years-prison-soliciting-hate-crimes-and
|
||||
|
||||
[^6]: UK SI 2024/569, Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2024; Canada Gazette SOR/2025-263, December 17, 2025; Australia F2025L00762, legislation.gov.au.
|
||||
[^5]: United States v. Humber, No. 2:24-cr-00257 (E.D. Cal.), ECF 90, "Formal PSR Objections and Sentencing Memorandum" by the United States, November 26, 2025. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.caed.452335/gov.uscourts.caed.452335.90.0.pdf
|
||||
[^6]: "Terrorgram: Exporting Terrorism" (Raw Investigates), Raw Story, March 7, 2025. https://www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/terrorgram-terrorism/
|
||||
[^7]: UK SI 2024/569, Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2024; Canada Gazette SOR/2025-263, December 17, 2025; Australia F2025L00762, legislation.gov.au.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -2,38 +2,123 @@
|
|||
category: "Extremism & Violent Networks"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- TerrorgramCollective
|
||||
- Brazil
|
||||
- SchoolAttack
|
||||
- NeoNazi
|
||||
- Accelerationism
|
||||
- Brazil
|
||||
- SaintsCulture
|
||||
- TerrorgramCollective
|
||||
- Telegram
|
||||
- MassShooter
|
||||
born: 2006
|
||||
location: "Aracruz, Espírito Santo, Brazil"
|
||||
created: 2026-05-21
|
||||
updated: 2026-05-21
|
||||
summary: "Gabriel Rodrigues Castiglioni was a 16-year-old Brazilian who attacked two schools in Aracruz in November 2022, killing four, in an attack Terrorgram Collective leader Dallas Humber mentored and subsequently memorialized with saint cards."
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-05
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- Gabriel Castiglioni
|
||||
- Aracruz shooter
|
||||
summary: "Gabriel Rodrigues Castiglioni, 16, killed four people and wounded twelve at two Aracruz schools on November 25, 2022, served three years of internment, and appears in U.S. filings against Dallas Humber as G.C."
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[2022 Aracruz School Shootings]]"
|
||||
start: 2022-11-25
|
||||
role: "Perpetrator"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: prosecuted
|
||||
with: "[[Ministério Público do Espírito Santo]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2022-11-25
|
||||
end: 2022-12-07
|
||||
role: "Ato infracional proceeding, Vara da Infância e Juventude de Aracruz"
|
||||
fn: 20
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Polícia Federal]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2023-04-05
|
||||
role: "Telegram group inquiry"
|
||||
fn: 10
|
||||
- type: relative_of
|
||||
with: "[[Fábio Castiglione]]"
|
||||
role: "Son of a Polícia Militar lieutenant"
|
||||
fn: 5
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
[[Gabriel Rodrigues Castiglioni]] (born approximately 2006, [[Aracruz, Espírito Santo, Brazil]]) was 16 when he attacked two schools in Aracruz on November 25, 2022, killing four people and wounding eleven. He wore military-style camouflage, a bulletproof vest, a skull mask associated with [[Atomwaffen Division]], and a homemade swastika armband, and had been active in online neo-Nazi accelerationist communities including [[Terrorgram Collective]] channels. In the prosecution of [[Dallas Humber]] in the [[Eastern District of California]], DOJ prosecutors documented that on or around October 23, 2022 - one month before the attack - Humber and [[Matthew Robert Allison]] had discussed in a secret [[Telegram]] chat a Brazilian contact planning "a racially motivated school attack in Brazil." Prosecutors attributed the Aracruz attack to Humber's guidance, and Humber subsequently created Terrorgram "saint cards" for Castiglioni and referred to him as "her kid." Castiglioni was sentenced to three years in juvenile detention - the maximum penalty available for minors under Brazilian law at the time of sentencing in December 2022.[^1]
|
||||
[[Gabriel Rodrigues Castiglioni]] (born approximately 2006) was 16 years old on November 25, 2022, when he entered the [[Escola Estadual Primo Bitti]] and then the [[Centro Educacional Praia de Coqueiral]] in the Coqueiral district of [[Aracruz, Espírito Santo]], [[Brazil]], armed with two firearms belonging to his father, a lieutenant of the [[Polícia Militar do Espírito Santo]]. Three teachers and a 12-year-old student were killed and twelve people were wounded.[^1] He was a former student of Primo Bitti and was apprehended the same afternoon at a family beach house.[^2] Brazilian outlets including [[A Gazeta]] withheld his name, citing the [[Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente]] (ECA);[^3] the [[Department of Justice|United States Department of Justice]] sentencing filings in the prosecution of [[Dallas Humber]] refer to him by the initials "G.C."[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Aracruz Attacks
|
||||
### Family and Early Years
|
||||
|
||||
On November 25, 2022, Castiglioni attacked [[Escola Estadual Primo Bitti]] first, then [[Escola Praia de Coqueiral]]. Four people were killed: student [[Selena Zagrillo]] (12), who was shot while hiding under a desk, teacher [[Maria da Penha Pereira de Melo Banhos]] (48), who was attempting to shield students, [[Cybelle Passos Bezerra Lara]] (45), and [[Flavia Amoss Merçon Leonardo]] (38). Eleven additional people were wounded.
|
||||
According to Brazilian press reports, his father, [[Fábio Castiglione]] (spelled Castiglioni in some outlets), was a lieutenant of the Polícia Militar do Espírito Santo who was also identified as a psychoanalyst, as identified by [[Metrópoles]].[^5] Metrópoles reported that the father's Instagram profile carried a post recommending Hitler's [[Mein Kampf]] with the caption "Reading is one of the keys to the expansion of consciousness"; the father told [[O Estado de S. Paulo]], in a statement relayed by [[Mídia NINJA]], that the book was terrible and that he had read it and hated it.[^5][^6] The family's lawyer, [[Priscila Benichio]], told [[Record TV]] that the parents had noticed their son's interest in the Second World War, had taken him to a museum, and had not recognized an interest in Nazism; she said he was being treated for depression, with medication.[^7] A school secretary and a teacher at Primo Bitti described him to the same program as quiet and as someone with depression.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
Castiglioni had been active on social media displaying admiration for Nazi ideology and claimed to have begun planning the attack in 2019 following a period of bullying, placing his radicalization in the same post-[[2019 Christchurch Mosque Shootings|Christchurch]] window as many other Terrorgram-linked cases. No separate written manifesto was publicly confirmed; his documented online activity constituted his ideological record.[^2]
|
||||
The police delegate in charge, [[André Jaretta]] of the [[Delegacia Especializada de Homicídios e Proteção à Pessoa de Aracruz]] (DHPP), said at a press conference on November 28, 2022 that the teenager reported having been bullied in 2019, began in 2020 to think about how to carry out an attack while telling no one, and for two years took his parents' weapons during their absences to "create intimacy" with them while studying the use of weapons on the internet.[^8] Jaretta later told Record that the teenager had first intended to attack a different school, farther from his home, where he said he had been bullied, and changed to the two nearest schools.[^7] Police dated his interest in Nazi material to 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when at age 14 he began visiting websites and forums, joining message groups that spread Nazi ideas, and consuming and producing violent videos; Jaretta summarized that "he believed a violent action could be a gesture of protest."[^7] According to the police, he left Primo Bitti in June 2022, of his own will and with his parents' consent.[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
### Terrorgram Connection
|
||||
### Telegram Groups and the Federal Police
|
||||
|
||||
The Humber prosecution established the most direct documented link between Terrorgram and the Aracruz attack. Court documents confirmed that on approximately October 23, 2022, Humber and Allison discussed a Brazilian contact's plans in a secret Telegram channel. Humber's subsequent creation of saint cards for Castiglioni - and her characterization of him as "her kid" - indicates a relationship extending beyond passive inspiration to something closer to the mentorship dynamic she had also maintained with prospective attackers in other countries.
|
||||
The [[Polícia Federal]] (PF) examined the telephone seized from him. In a report to the [[1ª Vara Federal de Linhares]], PF delegate [[Leopoldo Soares Lacerda]] wrote that the minor "was inspired by the material shared on the application to commit the act of violent extremism"; the phone held texts on how to "kill people with bare hands," suicide manuals, photographs of him with a book by Hitler, and interactions in [[Telegram]] groups.[^9] The files came from an antisemitic channel, "Movimento Anti-Semita Brasileiro," and a companion chat, "Frente Anti-Semita"; the group's repository included documents titled "Manual do Guerrilheiro Urbano," "22 maneiras de matar," "Técnicas Proibidas (bombas e armas)" and "O manual do Terrorista."[^10][^11] Lacerda wrote that the administrators of the channel and the chat "are the main investigated."[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
The Aracruz attack is listed in Humber's sentencing documents as the most lethal Terrorgram-attributed attack to that point. It is also cited explicitly in [[Matthew Althorpe]]'s Canadian sentencing (March 27, 2026) as one of the attacks his publications helped inspire.[^1]
|
||||
On the day of the attack the [[Polícia Civil do Espírito Santo]] said it was working with the hypothesis that the teenager had no defined target and might have acted under the stimulus of extremist groups that organize online inside and outside Brazil.[^2] On November 28, 2022 Jaretta said the case appeared isolated, "without participation of Nazi cells," while leaving all lines of inquiry open.[^8] By March 2023, Lieutenant [[Adriano de Farias]] of the Polícia Militar, quoted by Record, described the conclusion of the police inquiry: "from the execution on, he did everything alone. But in the planning he maintained some contacts with neo-Nazi groups, but we do not know how to detail what kind of support was given to him for the execution of this crime."[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
Justice Minister [[Flávio Dino]] had ordered the PF on April 5, 2023 to investigate Nazi and neo-Nazi organizations operating in Brazil.[^10] After the PF found the two Telegram groups on the Aracruz phone, it asked the Linhares federal court on April 14, 2023 to break the confidentiality of the channel and chat data.[^11] Telegram supplied the administrator data for one channel and said the other group had been deleted; on April 26, 2023 federal judge [[Wellington Lopes da Silva]] found the compliance only partial, raised the daily fine from R$100,000 to R$1 million, and ordered the application suspended nationwide.[^10][^11] Dino publicly supported the order.[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
On June 2, 2023 the PF executed search warrants in São Paulo and Petrolina, Pernambuco, in "Operação Bedel," against two members of the group whom it identified despite what it called the company's low cooperation. The PF stated that they were investigated for corrupting a minor under 18 by inducing him to commit qualified homicide and an offense under the Anti-Terrorism Law (Lei 13.260/2016), through the sharing of antisemitic, racist and violent-extremist material, with combined maximum penalties of 72 years. The PF wrote that "the use of the swastika on the minor's clothing at the time of the attack demonstrates the influence of Nazi ideology received from the application group."[^12][^13]
|
||||
|
||||
### November 25, 2022
|
||||
|
||||
According to the reconstruction given by Jaretta on November 28, the parents left their Coqueiral home to shop in the city center, and the teenager used the opportunity. He dressed, took the family car with its license plate covered, and entered Primo Bitti by a rear gate whose padlock he cut, then forced a second gate to reach the teachers' room. There he fired a pistol until it was empty, reloaded and fired again. He then drove to the Centro Educacional Praia de Coqueiral, a private school, stopped in front of the open main gate and fired a .38 revolver at students in the entrance hall, then through a window into a classroom on the upper floor. He took the car to a remote spot, uncovered the plate, went home, and put the clothing and weapons away.[^8] The attack began at about 9:30 in the morning;[^2] at the second school he made three student victims, one of them fatal, in a little over a minute, according to A Gazeta.[^14] The parents later remarked on the shootings at home, and the family had lunch before going to the beach house where he was apprehended at about 2:10 in the afternoon, the Polícia Civil said.[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
The weapons were a .40 pistol that the Polícia Militar had issued to the father for service and a .38 revolver he had bought privately.[^16] Jaretta said the pistol was kept in the father's bedroom under folded clothes and the revolver on top of a cabinet with a padlock, which the teenager opened; after the attack he reattached the padlock as his father kept it.[^7][^8] The commander of the Polícia Militar, [[Douglas Caus]], said that day that a disciplinary procedure was being opened to determine the circumstances in which the teenager obtained the two weapons, "one from the corporation and one of personal registration."[^15] The head of the Polícia Civil, [[José Darcy Arruda]], told [[Jornal Nacional]] that police would investigate whether the father taught his son to drive and to use a weapon, and that "if it is proven that the father, in some way, had a part in this behavior, he will certainly answer too."[^17] The family's lawyer said the father taught him to drive but not to shoot; Jaretta said the teenager's knowledge of how to handle a firearm was "quite evident" but that training could not be affirmed.[^7] According to Mídia NINJA, the teenager told police that he learned to shoot from YouTube, an account that relatives of victims and teachers disputed.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
Security cameras recorded the attack. He wore camouflage clothing, a hat, a vest and a mask, with an armband bearing a swastika that Governor [[Renato Casagrande]] confirmed as a Nazi symbol; [[Agência Brasil]] described the mask as a skeleton face similar to the one worn in social-media photographs by one of the perpetrators of the 2019 [[Suzano school shooting]].[^2] The [[Associated Press]] reported the swastika pinned to his vest.[^18] According to Folha Vitória, police found at the family home a swastika drawn by hand, air guns and other extremist content.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
The teachers who died were [[Maria da Penha Pereira de Melo Banhos]] (48), [[Cybelle Passos Bezerra Lara]] (45), a mathematics teacher and permanent state employee since 2018, and [[Flávia Amboss Merçon Leonardo]], who died in hospital on November 26; the student was [[Selena Sagrillo Zuccolotto]], 12, a sixth-grader at the private school.[^14] Flávia Amboss had defended a doctoral thesis at the [[Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais]] and was an activist of the [[Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens]].[^19] Ages given for her differ between outlets (36 and 38).[^7][^14] The state Health Secretariat's bulletin of November 26 listed a boy of 11 and a girl of 14 among the gravely wounded in intensive care.[^14] Police charged him with acts analogous to three qualified homicides and ten attempted homicides, committed for a trivial motive and endangering the public, a count made before the fourth death.[^3][^17] He confessed after being shown the surveillance footage and indicated where the weapons were.[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
### Brazilian Legal Outcome
|
||||
|
||||
Brazilian courts sentenced Castiglioni to three years in juvenile detention in December 2022, representing the maximum penalty available under Brazilian law for a minor at the time. He completed the sentence and was placed on supervised release by November 2025.[^2]
|
||||
The judge of the Vara da Infância e Juventude de Aracruz, [[Felipe Leitão]], had ordered provisional internment of up to 45 days. At a hearing on December 7, 2022, after the witnesses called by the [[Ministério Público do Espírito Santo]] (MPES), oral final arguments and the sentence were delivered in the same session: the judge upheld the representation and imposed the socio-educational measure of internment for up to three years, with a psychiatric protective measure during internment. The enforcement judge of the 3ª Vara da Infância e da Juventude de Vitória was to review the internment every six months on reports from the [[Instituto de Atendimento Socioeducativo do Espírito Santo]] (Iases).[^20] CartaCapital reported that the three-year term was the maximum for minors under 18 and that he was taken to Cariacica.[^21] Record reported in March 2023 that psychological evaluations up to then had diagnosed no psychic disorder.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
Other proceedings arising from the case remained under seal, and Record reported in March 2023 that one examined possible carelessness in the storage of the weapons.[^7] The Polícia Militar's disciplinary procedure against the father, opened on November 28, 2022, left him on administrative duties during its course.[^6][^8] In June 2025, victims and relatives circulated a petition stating that the father, "lieutenant of the Military Police and responsible for the weapons used in the crime, has until today not been punished and has not even been located to be officially cited in the process," and asking the state and the MPES to hold him responsible for negligence and complicity; the petition also asked that the teenager be tried again as an adult.[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Governo do Espírito Santo]] sent the legislative assembly a bill in 2023 for R$2.39 million in compensation, limited to people hurt at the state school Primo Bitti, modeled on the plan São Paulo adopted after Suzano; amounts were kept confidential by a clause in the plan, and the private school's victims were excluded on the advice of the state attorney's office.[^22]
|
||||
|
||||
He completed the three years of internment in late November 2025. The [[Tribunal de Justiça do Espírito Santo]] (TJES) confirmed to A Gazeta on December 2, 2025 that he had left Iases, without giving the date, and said that he continues under the socio-educational measure of assisted liberty (liberdade assistida), which has a minimum duration of six months.[^1][^23] The MPES said that Brazilian law does not allow a person to be held responsible again as an adult after full compliance with a socio-educational measure, that he received psychiatric care during internment, and that after the three-year maximum internment may be replaced by a milder measure under article 121, paragraph 4 of the ECA.[^1][^23] Jaretta, by then head of the Aracruz regional station, said it was "inconceivable that he is already free" and called on the National Congress to lengthen the maximum internment.[^23] The law firm Soneghet Adami Advogados Associados, which represents many of the injured, said it respected the decision as grounded in the ECA and was pursuing legal action against the state.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Terrorgram and the United States Record
|
||||
|
||||
The government's sentencing memorandum in [[United States v. Humber]], filed November 26, 2025 in the [[Eastern District of California]], lists seven people who "plotted and/or committed attacks" "inspired and guided by her leadership," including "G.C. shot eleven people, killing four, at two schools in Aracruz, Brazil." The same filing says the government would file under seal the "Saint cards" Humber created "to celebrate and commemorate the mass-shootings committed by J.K. and G.C., whom she considers 'symbolically [her] kids.'"[^4] J.K. is [[Juraj Krajčík]], who attacked a bar in [[Bratislava]] on October 12, 2022.[^24]
|
||||
|
||||
The contact between Humber and a person planning a school shooting became public in a government filing opposing bail for [[Matthew Robert Allison]], who was arrested with Humber on September 5, 2024.[^25] Raw Story reported in March 2025 that the filing, made the previous month, described a secret chat of October 23, 2022 in which Humber told Allison "she had direct messages with a Terrorgram user who was planning to commit a racially motivated school shooting," and that the details provided matched the Aracruz attack a month later.[^26] Raw Story's December 2025 account reported that the government alleged she communicated directly with Castiglioni before the attack.[^24] ProPublica and [[FRONTLINE]] wrote that after the attack Humber posted to a Terrorgram channel a ZIP file of information on it, including 17 photographs and four videos, said the massacre was motivated by "Hatred of non-Whites," and wrote that the assailant would get a "SLAP ON THE WRIST" sentence because of his age; the same account called it the most deadly known crime stemming from Terrorgram and said the teenager was later hailed as a saint by Terrorgram users.[^27]
|
||||
|
||||
At the sentencing on December 17, 2025, Special Litigation Counsel [[Christopher J. Perras]] told Judge [[Dena Coggins]] that Humber "was responsible for inciting" a mass shooting in Bratislava, a mass stabbing outside a mosque in Turkey "and a school shooting in Aracruz, Brazil that left teachers and children dead."[^28] The Justice Department's release of the same date, announcing a sentence of 360 months, states that "individuals led by Humber and the Terrorgram Collective have committed acts of violence internationally, including ... shooting 11 people, killing four, at two schools in Aracruz, Brazil."[^29]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Sofia Schurig]] wrote for the [[Global Network on Extremism and Technology]] (GNET) that a 2022 report she authored for [[Núcleo Jornalismo]], monitoring 46 Telegram groups and channels spreading neo-Nazi propaganda including the Terrorgram zine The Hard Reset, was published at the time of the Aracruz attack, and that the Brazilian Federal Police attributed the teenager's radicalization to his exposure to Telegram and Terrorgram channels.[^30] The PF statements and report quoted above name the Telegram channel "Movimento Anti-Semita Brasileiro" and its companion chat.[^10][^12] The Brazilian researcher [[Michele Prado]], founder of [[Stop Hate Brasil]], told Raw Story that she submitted a report on Terrorgram in 2023 to the [[Agência Brasileira de Inteligência]] (ABIN) and the [[Ministry of Justice and Public Security]].[^26]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice, OPA. "Leader of Transnational Terrorist Group Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison for Soliciting Hate Crimes and Murder." December 19, 2025. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/leader-transnational-terrorist-group-sentenced-30-years-prison-soliciting-hate-crimes-and; Public Prosecution Service of Canada. "PPSC Sentencing Announcement, Matthew Althorpe." March 27, 2026. https://www.ppsc.gc.ca/eng/nws-nvs/2026/27_03_26.html
|
||||
[^2]: CBS News. "Teen suspect in Brazil school shootings wore swastika armband, police say." November 2022. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/teen-suspect-brazil-school-shootings-4-killed-wore-swastika-police-say/
|
||||
[^1]: Júlia Afonso, "Atirador em ataques a escolas de Aracruz é solto após três anos," A Gazeta, December 2, 2025. https://www.agazeta.com.br/es/policia/atirador-em-ataques-a-escolas-de-aracruz-e-solto-apos-tres-anos-1225
|
||||
[^2]: Léo Rodrigues, "ES: adolescente usa arma do pai e símbolo nazista em ataque a escolas," Agência Brasil, November 25, 2022. https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/geral/noticia/2022-11/es-adolescente-usa-arma-do-pai-e-simbolo-nazista-em-ataque-escolas
|
||||
[^3]: "Polícia investiga se atirador de Aracruz tem ligação com grupos neonazistas," A Gazeta, November 26, 2022. https://www.agazeta.com.br/es/policia/policia-investiga-se-atirador-de-aracruz-tem-ligacao-com-grupos-neonazistas-1122
|
||||
[^4]: United States v. Humber, No. 2:24-cr-00257 (E.D. Cal.), ECF 90, "Formal PSR Objections and Sentencing Memorandum" by the United States, November 26, 2025. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.caed.452335/gov.uscourts.caed.452335.90.0.pdf
|
||||
[^5]: Manoela Alcântara and Ana Karolline Rodrigues, "Pai do autor de ataque em escolas indicou leitura de 'guia' nazista," Metrópoles, November 26, 2022. https://www.metropoles.com/brasil/pai-do-autor-de-ataque-em-escolas-indicou-leitura-de-guia-nazista
|
||||
[^6]: "Familiares e professores criticam processo de esquecimento do massacre de Aracruz e pedem justiça," Mídia NINJA, December 2, 2022. https://midianinja.org/familiares-e-professores-criticam-processo-de-esquecimento-do-massacre-de-aracruz/
|
||||
[^7]: "Interesse de atirador de Aracruz por conteúdo nazista começou aos 14 anos," Folha Vitória (reporting the Repórter Record Investigativo program of TV Vitória/Record TV), March 2023. https://www.folhavitoria.com.br/geral/massacre-de-aracruz-interesse-de-atirador-por-conteudo-nazista-comecou-aos-14-anos/
|
||||
[^8]: "PM instaura Processo Administrativo contra pai de assassino de Aracruz," Século Diário, press conference of November 28, 2022. https://www.seculodiario.com.br/seguranca/pm-instaura-processo-administrativo-contra-pai-de-assassino-de-aracruz/
|
||||
[^9]: "PF diz que post antissemita no Telegram influenciou ataque a escola em Aracruz," CartaCapital, April 27, 2023. https://www.cartacapital.com.br/cartaexpressa/pf-diz-que-publicacao-antissemita-no-telegram-influenciou-ataque-a-escola-em-aracruz/
|
||||
[^10]: "Justiça determina a suspensão do Telegram por não repassar dados à PF," Gazeta do Povo, April 2023. https://www.gazetadopovo.com.br/vida-e-cidadania/justica-determina-suspensao-do-telegram-no-brasil-por-nao-apresentar-dados-a-pf/
|
||||
[^11]: "Entenda por que juiz do ES mandou tirar Telegram do ar," A Gazeta, April 2023. https://www.agazeta.com.br/es/cotidiano/entenda-por-que-juiz-do-es-mandou-tirar-telegram-do-ar-0423
|
||||
[^12]: "PF cumpre mandados contra grupo neonazista ligado a assassino de Aracruz," A Gazeta, June 2, 2023. https://www.agazeta.com.br/es/policia/pf-cumpre-mandados-contra-grupo-neonazista-ligado-a-assassino-de-aracruz-0623
|
||||
[^13]: "PF faz operação contra grupo neonazista que teria induzido autor de ataque em escola em Aracruz," CNN Brasil, June 2, 2023. https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/nacional/pf-faz-operacao-contra-grupo-que-compartilhava-conteudo-extremista-em-redes-sociais/
|
||||
[^14]: "Ataques em escolas: saiba quem são as vítimas mortas em Aracruz," A Gazeta, November 26, 2022. https://www.agazeta.com.br/es/policia/ataques-em-escolas-saiba-quem-sao-as-vitimas-mortas-em-aracruz-1122
|
||||
[^15]: "Após atentado, atirador de Aracruz almoçou com os pais e foi para a praia," SBT News, November 28, 2022. https://sbtnews.sbt.com.br/noticia/brasil/231714-apos-atentado-atirador-de-aracruz-almocou-com-os-pais-e-foi-para-a-praia
|
||||
[^16]: "Autor de ataques em escolas de Aracruz é filho de PM e tinha suástica na roupa," O Tempo, November 25, 2022. https://www.otempo.com.br/brasil/autor-de-ataques-em-escolas-de-aracruz-e-filho-de-pm-e-tinha-suastica-na-roupa-1.2772415
|
||||
[^17]: "Polícia investiga se pai do atirador de Aracruz o instruiu a usar arma," Metrópoles, November 2022. https://www.metropoles.com/brasil/policia-investiga-se-pai-do-atirador-de-aracruz-o-instruiu-a-usar-arma
|
||||
[^18]: "Teen suspect in Brazil school shootings which killed 4 wore swastika, police say," Associated Press, via CBS News, November 26, 2022. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/teen-suspect-brazil-school-shootings-4-killed-wore-swastika-police-say/
|
||||
[^19]: "Vítimas de atentado de Aracruz mobilizam abaixo-assinado por justiça," Século Diário, June 11, 2025. https://www.seculodiario.com.br/seguranca/vitimas-de-atentado-de-aracruz-mobilizam-abaixo-assinado-por-justica/
|
||||
[^20]: Tribunal de Justiça do Espírito Santo, "Juiz de Aracruz conclui processo em relação ao autor dos ataques às duas escolas ocorrido no mês de novembro," December 7, 2022. https://www.tjes.jus.br/?p=157406
|
||||
[^21]: "Justiça determina até 3 anos de internação para adolescente atirador de Aracruz," CartaCapital, December 7, 2022. https://www.cartacapital.com.br/cartaexpressa/justica-determina-ate-3-anos-de-internacao-para-adolescente-atirador-de-aracruz/
|
||||
[^22]: Fabiana Tostes, "Massacre de Aracruz: Governo do ES vai indenizar vítimas do ataque à escola estadual," Folha Vitória, 2023. https://www.folhavitoria.com.br/politica/massacre-de-aracruz-governo-do-es-vai-indenizar-vitimas-do-ataque-a-escola-estadual/
|
||||
[^23]: "Atirador de escolas em Aracruz é solto após 3 anos," Tribuna Online, December 2025. https://tribunaonline.com.br/policia/atirador-de-escolas-em-aracruz-e-solto-apos-3-anos-283744
|
||||
[^24]: "Ruthless neo-Nazi terrorist grooming new attackers from jail, U.S. DOJ says," Raw Story, December 8, 2025. https://www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/ruthless-neo-nazi-terrorist-grooming-new-attackers-from-jail-u-s-doj-says/
|
||||
[^25]: Anti-Defamation League, "Terrorgram Collective: International Terrorists Promoting Violence and White Supremacy." https://extremismterms.adl.org/resources/article/terrorgram-collective-international-terrorists-promoting-violence-and-white
|
||||
[^26]: "Terrorgram: Exporting Terrorism" (Raw Investigates), Raw Story, March 7, 2025. https://www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/terrorgram-terrorism/
|
||||
[^27]: "The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram: Inside a Global Online Hate Network," ProPublica and PBS FRONTLINE, 2025. https://www.propublica.org/article/rise-and-fall-terrorgram-inside-global-online-hate-network-frontline-telegram
|
||||
[^28]: United States v. Humber, No. 2:24-cr-00257 (E.D. Cal.), ECF 111, Transcript of Judgment and Sentencing, December 17, 2025, pp. 30-31 (statement of Christopher J. Perras). https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.caed.452335/gov.uscourts.caed.452335.111.0.pdf
|
||||
[^29]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, "Leader of Transnational Terrorist Group Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison for Soliciting Hate Crimes and Murder, and Conspiring to Provide Material Support to Terrorists," December 17, 2025. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/leader-transnational-terrorist-group-sentenced-30-years-prison-soliciting-hate-crimes-and
|
||||
[^30]: Sofia Schurig, "Terrorgram and Youth Radicalisation: Understanding Brazil's Online Extremist Landscape," GNET, November 22, 2024. https://gnet-research.org/2024/11/22/terrorgram-and-youth-radicalisation-understanding-brazils-online-extremist-landscape/
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
Loading…
Add table
Add a link
Reference in a new issue