Police in São Paulo, Brazil, have arrested six skateboarders in connection with the mugging and murder of a gay teenager, one of a string of anti-gay attacks, the International Business Times reports.
Bruno Borges de Oliveira was on his way home from a night out in São Paulo’s gay district when he was attacked and beaten to death with a skateboard.
According to police, the accused have allegedly carried out several attacks on gay people over recent weeks. At least three other people were attacked on the same night de Oliveira was killed.
“They chose their victims for being gay,” police spokesman Ruy Ferraz Fontes says. “They stole the victims’ belongings as part of a ritual of humiliation.”
Despite having one of the largest Pride parades in the world, Brazil has seen an epidemic of violence against gay people. According to Grupo Gay da Bahia, Brazil’s largest gay rights group, an LGBT person is murdered in Brazil on average every 38 hours.
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