The_Info_Web/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Gabriel Rodrigues Castiglioni.md

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---
category: "Extremism & Violent Networks"
tags:
- Person
- Brazil
- SchoolAttack
- NeoNazi
- Accelerationism
- TerrorgramCollective
- Telegram
- MassShooter
born: 2006
location: "Aracruz, Espírito Santo, Brazil"
created: 2026-05-21
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) 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]
### Family and Early Years
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]
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]
### Telegram Groups and the Federal Police
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]
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
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]: 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/