Russian diplomat kills Brazilian thief near Olympics venue

The Russian vice-consul in Rio-de-Janeiro dramatically shot dead an armed mugger who had tried to hold him up in his car – just after the Olympic torch relay had passed by on the last day before the Rio 2016 opening ceremony.

Marcos Cesar Feres Braga, a Brazilian lawyer who holds the vice-consul post at the Russian consulate, reportedly grabbed the attacker and pulled him into his BMW X6 after he had smashed the car window and pointed a gun at him, demanding he hand over his watch.

A struggle ensued inside the diplomat’s car until he managed to grab the assailant’s gun, which he used to shoot him dead at point blank range, according to police.

Mr Braga is trained in jiu-jitsu and was travelling with his wife and daughter at the time, local media outlet Globo reported.

The mugger, who was on a motorbike with another man, struck at around midday as Braga was waiting for traffic to start moving again after the Olympic torch had passed by on Avenida das Americas in the Barra da Tijuca district of Rio, close to the Olympic Park and athletes village.

Witnesses said that at the moment of the shooting Olympic cyclists from Slovenia were passing by on a training exercise.

The body of the mugger, named as Leonardo Lopes Batista, which lay for several hours on the road as police underwent investigations, was seen by various Olympic delegations which passed by on the special Olympic lanes close to the crime scene.

But the Russian General Consul in Rio has denied any diplomat was involved in the shooting.

Report by Daily Mail