Brazil gun violence

In Manaus, capital of northwestern Brazil’s Amazonas state, 34 people were shot and killed during the weekend of July 18-19 after a police officer was shot and killed outside of a bank. Investigators are trying to determine whether the sharp increase in murders was due to drug gang activity or police officers’ trying to avenge their colleague’s death. 

A UN report released in May 2015 found that 2012 (the most recent year for which data is available) had the highest number of gun deaths in Brazil in 35 years, around 42,000 people that year. Manaus, with over two million people, averaged just over two murders a day in 2012.